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Discuss FY 2021 Excess Fund Balance Appropriation.
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Staff:
Department:
Maurice Jones, Town Manager
Manager's Office
Amy Oland, Director
Business Management
Recommendation(s):
That the Council receive an update on the Fiscal Year 2021 Excess Fund Balance Appropriation and discuss the intended uses for these funds.
Key Issues:
In spite of the challenges of the pandemic, the Town finished FY 2021 in an incredibly strong financial position. We attribute this to the following factors:
* Conservative budgeting practices - The Town was extremely conservative going into the FY 2021 budget as we recognized that there were numerous factors that we did not know how the pandemic would impact.
* Unexpected sales tax growth - We anticipated a 5% decline from prior year collections, but we actually saw a 15.7% increase over prior year sales tax revenues.
* Personnel savings - The Town typically experiences $2-3 million in personnel savings each year due to about 10% of the Town's regular positions (60-70) being vacant due to natural attrition from turnover, retirements, etc. However, as a result of the hiring freeze, we had $5.9 million in personnel savings in FY 2021.
Total fund balance at June 30, 2021 was up by $7,028,454 (from $27.3 million to $34.3 million). Available fund balance is up by $5.9 million (from $15.1 million to $21.0 million). The amount of fund balance that is available to appropriate at the end of FY 2021 is $7.9 million (35.3%). Available fund balance is the amount remaining after all commitments for future expenditures, required reserves defined by State statutes, and previous designations have been calculated. The Town strives to maintain a targeted available fund balance of 22% of General Fund expenditures (including transfers). FY 2021 expenditures were much lower than is usual as a result of budget cuts and personnel savings due to the hiring freeze. While $7.9 million is available to appropriate, staff has recommended onl...
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