Adopted Budget Book FY 23-24 Final with TOC links - Flipbook - Page 111
Budget-In-Brief → buDgeT oVerView
Expenditures
For FY 2024, the City budgeted a 5% salary COLA increase of $644,421 (Salary & Benefits Increase/
Decrease, page 17), and $1,000 flat pay of $228,000 (Salary & Benefits Increase/Decrease, page
17) for all existing full-time employees. This equates to a total increase in salary, tax, and benefit
costs of $1,797,009 (Salary & Benefits Increase/Decrease, page 17) citywide: an investment in the
City’s future to ensure the attraction and retention of quality employees for years to come. Public
safety pensions are anticipated to increase modestly in FY 2024 by approximately a $319,385 or
2% increase in comparison with the last year. Also, general liability, worker’s compensation, and
property insurance are expected to increase by 10% resulting in a citywide increase of $104,995.
Operating supplies and services are budgeted based on necessity, taking into account the escalated
6.5% Consumer Price Index in May, 2023. Moreover, there has been an increase in expenditures
for Capital Improvement Projects, particularly in the Water & Sewer Replacement & Renewal fund,
for FY 2023-24. As a consequence of the accelerated progress and increased costs associated with
the “Bates Main WWTP Expansion” project, there has been a significant $2,687,942 rise in overall
expenditures compared to the previous year’s budget. Partially, the project is being funded by the
ARPA funds and has a deadline set for December 2024. The detailed expenditures related to operating costs are reflected in the individual department pages by the fund.
The City is required to fund the CRA for the increase in Tax Increment Funding each year as
mandated by State of Florida CRA statutes. The estimated transfer will be $784,683 (Community
Redevelopment Summary, page 284), based on preliminary taxable values as provided by the Lake
County Property Appraiser’s office.
Financial Policies
This section describes the major financial policies that affect the City’s long-term financial planning
and budgeting processes. The City’s financial policies serve to match fluctuating spending needs
with available resources. The annual budget is prepared as a balanced budget, with total revenues
and other financing sources equaling total expenditures/expenses and other financing uses for
each fund. Any shortfalls of current revenue sources matched against anticipated expenditures are
supplemented with a reduction in the existing fund balance.
The use of fund balance to balance a fund’s budget makes a fund balance reserve policy an important
planning and budget tool. Large-scale capital project spending needs and fluctuating interest rates
make debt management a closely watched financial policy issue. Investing the City’s financial
resources so that the fund’s values keep pace with rising costs is aggressively administered.
Operating Policies:
The City will develop and maintain accounting and budgetary control systems to adequately safeguard the assets being held in public trust.
The City will limit current expenditures to match against currently anticipated revenues. The City
will avoid balancing current operating expenditures with borrowed revenues.
The City will provide for adequate maintenance of capital, plant, and equipment and for their
orderly replacement.
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City of Eustis, Florida
Adopted Budget
109
