Shaker Heights reports $3.5 million surplus, administration proposes transfers for lighting, insurance, solar and Lee Road match

Director Potts, the city’s finance director, told the joint Shaker Heights City Council and Finance Committee on Nov. 10 that the city expects to end 2025 with roughly $66,000,000 in revenues versus a $64,000,000 budget and projected expenditures of about $48.4 million, producing a combined surplus of about $3.5 million.

Potts said the revenue outperformance—"we beat budget by $2,000,000"—was driven by conservative property tax estimates that produced fewer-than-expected appeals, higher-than-expected court costs and EMS revenues, stronger investment earnings and earlier-than-expected school permit fees related to projects such as Woodbury. On expenditures he said some savings came from vacancy in the police department and lower-than-budgeted non-payroll costs.

Why it matters: the administration proposed using the surplus to cover four priorities it described as largely required or strongly recommended rather than discretionary spending. Potts summarized the administration’s plan as three "needs" and one "want-also-a-need": a $225,000 transfer to the street lighting assessment fund to restore a near-20% reserve after energy costs exceeded the recent reassessment; a $500,000 increase to the self-insurance transfer (bringing the transfer to $1,000,000) primarily to cover sharply higher workers’ compensation claims; $1.8 million returned to the general capital fund…