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Council presses staff on budget accounting; staff cites interfund transfers and lagging close
Summary
Councilors raised questions about what looked like a large change in total budgeted revenue; staff explained the variance comes from interfund transfers and year-end adjustments that are still being closed.
A council member asked why budget documents showed a sizable jump in total revenue from roughly $11 million to $20 million in the proposed budget. Staff explained those differences are principally timing and interfund transfers: last year staff moved money from the general fund to capital projects to avoid exceeding fund-balance percentages, and now some of those projects and transfers are returning to the general fund pending allocation.
Staff acknowledged the city is behind on its close for recent months and said financial statements are a few months behind; they do not expect the close to be finished before the next meeting. The staff representative described the transfers as a standard mechanism to allocate funds to capital projects and said they would bring updated financials to the council for a more exact accounting prior to finalizing the budget.
