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Surprise finance staff report FY25 revenues above budget; $3.7 million in ambulance write-offs disclosed
Summary
At a Oct. 21 work session the Surprise City Council received the FY2025 financial status report showing overall revenues about 5.5% over budget but a roughly $3.7 million ambulance receivable write-off identified after a billing-vendor transition. Council members asked staff for a breakdown and time span of the uncollected amounts.
At a Oct. 21 Surprise City Council work session finance staff presented the city—s FY2025 financial status, reporting total revenues finished about 5.5% above budget while identifying a roughly $3.7 million write-off tied to ambulance billing.
Sandy, finance staff, told the council the city—s main revenue categories include local sales tax, state-shared income and sales taxes, primary property tax, franchise fees, charges for services and miscellaneous "other" receipts. She said local sales tax ended the year 8.7% over budget and intergovernmental receipts overall were about 2.9% above budget.
The presenter said charges for services showed a shortfall of about $4 million, and that "the majority of that $4,000,000 that we did not collect was due to our ambulance write offs." She added, "It honestly was like $3,700,000," and explained the figure reflected unpaid bills and insurance discounts that were booked and later adjusted.
Council members pressed for more detail. Councilman Judd asked whether the figure represented multiple years and requested a breakdown of the underlying receivables; Sandy said the uncollected amounts surfaced when the city switched billing vendors and staff would provide more detail. She described the amounts as primarily legacy balances that the city is "playing catch up" on after the vendor transition and said there is an established collections process although much of the $3.7 million was written off.
On expenditures, staff said personnel finished about 3.7% under budget (largely from hiring timing), services came in about 17% under budget (noting developer reimbursements are budgeted conservatively), and capital spending had modest timing savings (about $200,000). Transfers out included ongoing and one-time amounts; due to savings the city moved an additional $15 million into the general capital fund.
Council members asked for the total ambulance revenue expected, the number of years covered by the uncovered receivables and a line-item breakdown. Sandy committed to providing those details to the council. No formal action was taken at the meeting on the finance presentation.
The council thanked finance staff for the report and moved on to subsequent agenda items.
