Council hears general-fund update; staff cites tax-roll posting and available cash

Lancaster city staff told the City Council on Feb. 11 that the general fund is recovering from an earlier shortfall and that tax-roll revenue posted to the general fund on Feb. 1 totaled $1,500,000.

A staff member summarized several financial points: the report noted capital-improvement program (CIP) spending that had been recorded in the budget, the posted property-tax rollback revenue, and what the staff member described as roughly $8,400,000 in unrestricted cash, which the staff characterized as about 151 days of operating expenses.

The staff member said some figures on the report lag typical timing, noting that tax-roll revenue is "a couple weeks behind." The staff member also said the city has not yet started several large grant-funded projects that will drive reimbursable revenue (they referenced a $13,000,000 grant in the meeting record). "We ended January with almost 8,400,000 in unrestricted cash, which is equivalent to 151 days of operating expenses," the staff member said.

The staff member told the council they will follow up with the treasurer to reconcile differences in the revenue calculations: "We're still having some discussions with the treasurer... they're gonna have to prove to me that they gave us the right calculated... right now I think they're a little short." The council did not adopt additional budget actions at the meeting.

The council also heard that hospitality-tax and solid-waste revenues are tracking at or above projections and that business-license renewal notices will be sent soon.

Because some transcript figures were garbled in the public record (for example, an unusually large CIP figure that appears inconsistent with other reported numbers), reporters and readers should treat some line-item figures as those stated by staff in the meeting record and await official budget documents or a treasurer reconciliation for final numbers.