Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Finance director outlines interest‑earnings plan and indirect cost allocation to help general fund
Summary
Finance Director Vicki Carlson recommended charging an indirect cost allocation against interest earnings and some funds to return roughly $300,000 (based on 2025 allocations) to the general fund; the proposal would be implemented via the 2027 budget and use an updated indirect cost model.
Finance Director Vicki Carlson told the council staff had identified revenue sources with self‑imposed limits and proposed changes intended to increase general fund revenue without altering legally restricted funds. A key recommendation was to allocate interest earnings as they currently do but apply an indirect cost allocation to recover the general fund’s cost of accounting and investment services.
Carlson provided example figures to show scale: total city interest earnings were about $1.6 million in 2022 and rose to about $5.6 million in 2023. "In 2025, if we had done the indirect cost allocation, it would have been about $300,000 in ongoing revenue to the general fund," she said. Carlson said staff expects to update the indirect cost model with 2025 actuals and the 2027 budget and tentatively cited an illustrative indirect rate of about 10–12% depending on the finalized calculation.
Council members asked for details on how the rate is calculated, whether a percentage is the right mechanic (versus a time‑based charge), and how the recommendation would be incorporated into the budget process. Carlson said the model allocates central services (finance, HR, IT) across funds and that the practice would be implemented starting in the next budget year, with the council retaining final decision authority during budget adoption.
