BUDGET-IN-BRIEF

The FY-2003/04 budget, adopted on March 13, 2003, contains total revenues of $5,665,626 and total expenditures of $5,734,900. This difference of $69,274 will be discussed below.

Iowa municipalities are permitted to levy, into separate governmental funds, annual property taxes for (i) employee social security & pension costs, (ii) health insurance costs, (iii) tort & generally liability costs, and (iv) police retirement funding under Chapter 411 of the Code of Iowa. Today, these governmental funds actually contain left-over, or “banked” funds, unspent from previous years. Since these governmental fund balances should be $0 at the end of each fiscal year, the City has chosen to spend these funds downward toward $0, and reduce the tax levy accordingly. The result of “spending down” these governmental funds (and reducing taxes accordingly) is the “perceived” deficit of $69,274. It’s not actually a deficit; the City is choosing to spend down money that was not intended to accumulate.

According to State budgetary requirements for publication purposes, internal transfers are considered on both the revenue and expenditure sides of the equation. As a result, published budget documents contain total revenues of $7,315,858 and total expenditures of $6,949,059. However, a much truer picture of the City’s FY-2004 picture is described above, in the first paragraph.

The chart below delineates all 2004 proposed revenues and expenditures by “purpose”. For a much fuller account of the City’s finances, the City budget is available for public inspection at City Hall and the public library.