Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Arlington staff present 2025 financial report: sales-tax swings, $6M ending fund balance
Summary
Finance staff presented a full-year 2025 report showing sales-tax volatility (overall +8.5% vs. 2024 but 93.8% of budget), a general-fund ending balance of roughly $6.0M (about $160,000 below projection), and $58M in cash and investments. Staff noted one-time construction receipts and asked council to consider these patterns during the upcoming retreat.
Shelby presented Arlington's 2025 financial report and walked the council through revenue and expenditure trends, fund balances, and key metrics that staff will use for upcoming budget planning.
Shelby said total sales tax for 2025 rose about 8.5% over 2024 but still equaled only 93.8% of the budgeted amount. She broke sales-tax receipts into three main sources: retail sales (about 46% of sales-tax revenue and up roughly 3% from 2024), services (about 22% and showing consistent growth averaging 9% annually since 2022), and construction sales tax (about 15% of 2025 sales tax and up 25% from 2024). Shelby cautioned that construction sales tax is one‑time funding and that staff transfers those receipts to capital and public-art funds rather than relying on them for ongoing operating expenses.
Shelby reported the general fund was budgeted to generate $25,000,000 in revenue but collected $23.1M; expenditures were budgeted at $25.7M but actual spending was $23.7M after expense-reduction efforts. She corrected an earlier typo in the report and confirmed the ending general-fund balance as roughly $6,000,000 (the budgeted target was $6,160,000). Shelby also summarized other funds: property tax collections rose about 3.47% and nearly met budget, transportation sales tax grew 9% but reached about 90.3% of budget, and criminal-justice sales tax increased about 77.8% and exceeded its budget target.
On capital and long-term items, Shelby said the city owed almost $21,000,000 in debt at year-end with most obligations scheduled to be paid off by 2034; cash and investments totaled about $58,000,000 and interest income was up about 13% over 2024. Shelby noted growth-fund balances, mitigation-fee spending on the Smoky Point Community Park, and public-art transfers that left the art fund with a beginning balance of about $139,000 for 2026.
Council members asked a few clarifying questions, including about lodging-tax patterns and hotel-stay reporting; Shelby said staff would get more detailed hotel-stay data from partners. Shelby emphasized that, because revenue growth is not keeping pace with projected expenditure growth, some of the ending fund balance would be used unless other revenue sources improve, and she asked the council to consider these trends at the upcoming retreat.
