City of Oxnard

FINANCIAL DATA

OUR COMMITMENT TO FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

Thanks to the voters’ approval of Measure E in November 2020, in Fiscal Year 2021-22 the City of Oxnard received its first positive budget in a decade.

The City remains committed to financial transparency, and we want to assure you that we are helping members of our community better understand how their tax dollars and fees are spent.


USING THE OXNARD FINANCIAL REPORTING TOOL

The tools in this section allow you to:

  1. Learn about the City's budget and finances, and
  2. Provide a wide range of easy access to financial reports that detail where the City gets and how the City spends its money.

DATA SOURCES

The City’s goal is to continue to expand and present more information through this platform as it becomes available. Data going back to fiscal year 2015-16 is available to view, filter and analyze. Please note that all financial information is presented on a budgetary basis and, therefore, will be different in some respects than the City's Annual Financial Report which is prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).


Note: Financial data for fiscal years 2022-23 and 2023-24 is preliminary and unaudited and subject to update as more complete data becomes available.


Additional reports, including the City's latest Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR), can be found HERE and budget documents can be found HERE.


For a brief overview about interacting with the data in the charts and graphs on these pages CLICK HERE.


CHART OF ACCOUNTS

The City of Oxnard adopted a new chart of accounts for FY 2022-23 to coincide with the implementation of its new ERP financial software. The new account structure streamlines and cleans up the decades old chart of accounts.


Because the reporting structure has changed, you will see two versions of each report: one version contains data for periods through FY 2021-22 and one contains data for FY 2022-23 and beyond.


For more details on the City's Chart of Accounts CLICK HERE.



PLEASE NOTE: Transfers between funds for capital projects have been excluded from reports in order to display the net revenue and expenditures.

THE BIG PICTURE (FY 2021-22 and earlier):

Revenue Trends Over Time - All Funds*


The City is funded by revenue from various taxes and fees, as well as grants. Different sources of revenue are restricted to specific uses, which the City assigns to funds that serve as a group of accounts for the City.


A few examples of funds include:

- General Fund (101): Provides basic City services, like police, fire, parks, and street maintenance, funded mostly through sales and property taxes.

- Enterprise Funds (601 through 638): Include water, wastewater and solid waste, funded almost entirely through fees charged to the ratepayers.

- Grant Funds: Established to receive Federal and State grant revenue and ensure that it is spent on the projects for which each grant is earmarked.

THE BIG PICTURE (FY 2022-23 and later):

Revenue Trends Over Time - All Funds*

Learn more about the revenues for various City funds by clicking anywhere on the charts above.

NOTE: Revenues are not collected evenly throughout the year; for example, property taxes that represent a large part of the city's income are mostly collected in December and April.


THE BIG PICTURE (FY 2021-22 and earlier):

Expense Trends Over Time - All Funds


Providing services for roughly 210,000 residents, Oxnard is the largest city in Ventura County and the 20th most populous city in California. The City is responsible for maintaining 453 miles of streets, 650 miles of sidewalks, 70 miles of alleys and 1.8 million square feet of medians. Additionally, the City is responsible for the maintenance of 56,000 trees as well as 53 total parks throughout Oxnard.


The City's biggest expense is personnel-related costs. This includes not only salaries but also the cost of benefits. Operating and maintenance (O&M) expenses cover a wide variety of charges such as supplies, equipment, repair contracts, and utilities.

THE BIG PICTURE (FY 2022-23 and later):

Expense Trends Over Time - All Funds

Internal charges include the allocated costs for liability insurance, maintenance of City-owned facilities and vehicles, information technology, human resources, finance and administration. Another significant type of expense is debt service (principal and interest payments) on bonds that the City uses to fund large capital projects that provide a long-term benefit to the City.

Learn more about the expenses for various City funds by clicking anywhere on the charts above.

Excludes Oxnard Housing Authority and fiduciary funds in which the City acts as a trustee for third parties such as retirement funds.

Revenue Sources

Sales Tax:

Breakout showing how sales tax dollars are distributed

As we mentioned, taxes are one of the primary sources of revenue for the City, but taxes are limited.

With the passage of Measure E, sales tax is now the largest source of income for the General Fund. The City’s current sales tax rate is 9.25%, and will decrease to 8.75% when Measure O sunsets in March 2029. Of the 9.25% total sales tax collected, the City receives: 1% from the state sales tax, plus 1.5% from the Measure E transactions and use tax and 0.5% from the Measure O tax. Measure O tax is accounted for in a separate fund within the General Fund family and is committed to specific programs and projects by City Council action.

Sales tax revenue is dependent on the economy and can decrease if the economy goes down. This is why it is important for the City to try to encourage a diverse business environment and for residents to spend their money locally.

Property Tax:

Breakout showing how property tax dollars are distributed

Property taxes are the second largest source of revenue for the City's General Fund. California's Proposition 13 limits the amount of property tax at 1% of assessed value at the time of sale and limits increases in assessed value to no more than 2% per year until the property is sold again. That 2% is not keeping up with the increased cost of providing City services. Furthermore, the City only gets 17.6% of the 1%.



OTHER REVENUE

Other sources of revenue include business license tax, transient occupancy (hotel) tax, development fees, franchise fees, and other fees and fines.