Q2 2022 Financial Reports
For the Six Months Ended March 31, 2022
Prepared for:
Honorable Mayor and City Council
Interim City Manager
Marty K. Lawing
Department Directors
Prepared by:
Budget Office
April 25, 2022
The accompanying report reflects the City’s overall financial position through March 31, 2022.
To view Funds click on the titles: Other Items:
The General Fund Revenues and Expenditures are shown below.
*Please note: Due to rounding, some totals in the narrative may be off in comparison to the graphs.
General Fund Revenues
General Fund Revenues for the six months ended March 31, 2022, total $105.29 million and are 72% of the $145.32 million dollar budget compared to prior year revenues at $89.42 million, and 67% of the $134.06 million dollar budget. This amounts to an increase in total revenues over prior year of $15.87 million dollars, or 17.8%.
The main drivers to this result consist of the following:
- Ad valorem tax collections increase by $4.3 million dollars due to increases in property valuations and newly added properties to the tax roll
- The Fire assessment fee for fiscal year 2022 was realigned among the property categories to reflect an updated calls for service study, then increased to provide sufficient revenues to provide for improved fire rescue services and added resources, which resulted in higher amounts collected from the prior year by nearly $7.0 million dollars
- Other licenses, fees and permits increase by $1.0 million dollars, seeing increases in collections from plan review fees, as well as engineering and fire permits fees
- State shared revenues increase by $1.1 million dollars driven by collections from the half cent sales tax
- Charges for services increase in total by $.3 million driven mainly by recreation
- Other miscellaneous revenues increase by $1.8 million as a result of capital lease proceeds received during the 2nd quarter for new fire apparatus
It is important to note that many major revenues, including the half-cent sales tax, communications service tax and the FPL franchise fee, reflect only four months of actual collections and two months of estimates for this six-month reporting period. Overall for the six months, General Fund revenues are coming in better than anticipated.
General Fund Expenditures
Total expenditures of $73.43 million are 51% of the $145.28 million dollar budget compared to the prior year expenditures of $68.18 million also at 51% of the $134.06 million dollar budget.
Operating expenditures are $59.14 million and 48% of the $124.38 million budget compared to prior year of $53.98 million at 47% of the $114.18 million dollar budget. Operating expenditures increase over the prior year by $5.17 million dollars or 9.6%, due to the net effect of the following:
- Fire Department expenditures increase $4.54 million dollars due to the addition of 32 positions, operating supplies for bunker gear, uniforms, etc. and equipment. Also, the timing of the payment to South Trail Fire District was paid in the third quarter last year versus the second quarter this current year
- Police Department expenditures increase $754,347 due to the net effect of increases in Personal Services for workers’ compensation and the transfer of 13 officers from the COPS grant and an increase in ITS charges partially offset by a decrease in Fleet charges from changes in the accounting of lease payments on the police vehicles.
Areas of concern include operating expenditures that are higher than projected costs to maintain the stadium grounds and facilities as well personnel costs, as without new contracts in place for Police and General Unions, no salary increases were provided during the first half of the fiscal year. The Fire Union employees were the only exception as their contract was in place.
Other expenditures increase over the prior year by $87,809 due to the net effect of the following:
- Debt service transfers increase by $75,831
- Transfer to the Capital Improvement Budget decreases by ($205,405)
- Insurance decreases ($60,250)
- Operating transfers increase $277,633 due to the following:
o $438,217 increase in transfers to the CRA Tax Increment Funds
o $147,150 increase in the transfer to the Skatium
o ($98,634) decrease in the transfer to the Street Maintenance Fund
o ($209,100) decrease in the transfer to the Golf Courses
Overall, for the six months ended March 31, 2022, General Fund revenues exceed expenditures by $31.86 million. This result is normal since the majority of property taxes and the fire assessment fee are collected in the first half of the year.
CONCLUSION
Review and analysis of the City’s financial statements for the six months ended March 31, 2022 indicate that revenue collections are coming in as planned and spending is within the budget parameters for the major operating funds. Much of the favorability in spending is due to no salary increases provided for employees, except for the Fire Union, due to contracts not in place. Monitoring of the City’s finances will continue as the fiscal year progresses.
As a reminder, the FY 2022 General Fund budget was adopted with expenditures exceeding revenues by $5.0 million. This unstructured budget position uses available reserves to fill in the gap. Budget execution trends makes it unlikely that all planned use of reserves will be necessary. However, sustainability into the future will require preservation of reserves and a structurally balanced budget. This will be the focus as the development of the FY2023 budget begins over the course of the next few months.
This report is designed as an informative document for internal use only. It does not include all funds and accounts included in the City of Fort Myers operations. All audited funds and accounts are included in the City’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.