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City reports modest FY25 surplus and slightly lower reserves; sales tax lag noted
Summary
City budget staff reported unaudited FY25 results: revenues modestly above current estimate, expenditures under estimate yielding $3.6M moved to reserves; sales tax was $11.9M below budget but above the estimate used for planning.
City Budget and Organizational Excellence Director Carrie Lang presented the fiscal year 2025 fourth‑quarter unaudited financial report to the Audit & Finance Committee on Jan. 14, detailing revenue and expenditure variances and staffing vacancy rates.
Lang said the city ended the year $600,000 above its current year estimate for revenue and about $3,000,000 below the current year estimate for expenditures, allowing roughly $3.6 million to move to reserves. "We did end revenue above our estimate $600,000 or $600,000 above the estimate," Lang said. She noted general fund reserves are projected to end the year at 16.2% compared with a 16.7% budgeted level, in part because anticipated FEMA payments have not been received.
Key items discussed included sales tax revenue, which staff reported was $11.9 million below the adopted budget for FY25 but $3.5 million above the estimate used during the proposed budget process; EMS billing exceeded the current year estimate by about $1.2 million due to billing efficiencies and higher Central Health revenue; and several departments achieved a 1.5% budget savings target with 8 of 12 departments meeting that goal.
Lang also reviewed vacancy rates: citywide vacancy was 9.1% (lowest since 2019), civilian vacancy 7.7%, capital delivery services at 15%, and sworn vacancies including EMS at 16.6% and police at 17.8%.
Councilmembers asked for backup materials to be posted publicly and for overtime spending detail in future quarterly reports to track public safety costs; Lang agreed to add the requested materials and include overtime figures in the FY26 first‑quarter report.
The committee accepted the report and directed staff to provide the backup materials and clarifying detail on specific line items and the CIP bond entries noted as potential typos.
