FY 2025 BUDGET BOOK - Flipbook - Page 102
Other Financing Sources:
General Fund, Various Special Revenue Funds, and Water & Sewer Utility Revenue Fund
There are other revenues in the budget that are not exchange-based transactions. These include
transactions such as interfund transfers and utilization of fund balance. Interfund transfers are
transfers from one fund to another to provide funding to offset costs incurred in another fund or, in
the case of the Water and Sewer Utility Revenue Fund, to pay the General Fund for a return on
investment and overhead costs. Appropriation of fund balance as a revenue reflects the increase or
decrease on the reliance of fund balance as a revenue source to balance revenues against
expenditures for a given year and ensure a balanced budget. The interfund transfer from the Water
& Sewer Utility Fund to the General Fund is budgeted at $2,300,000 (General Fund Revenue, page
132).
Expenditures
For FY 2024/25, the City budgeted a 5% salary COLA increase of $815,122 (Salary & Benefits
Increase/Decrease, page 14) in addition to a $1,000 flat pay increase of $227,000 (Salary & Benefits
Increase/Decrease, page 14) for all existing full-time employees. This equates to a total increase in
salary, FICA, and benefit costs of $1,845,707 (Salary & Benefits Increase/Decrease, page 14) Citywide. This is 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 2024/25 by approximately
$283,401 or 11.3% in comparison with the last year. Also, general liability, worker’s compensation,
and property insurance increased by 9.2% resulting in a City-wide increase of $124,875. Operating
supplies and services are budgeted based on necessity with the escalated 2.5% Consumer Price
Index (August 2024) taken into consideration. There has been a decrease in expenditures for capital
improvement projects in FY 2024/25, especially in the Water & Sewer Replacement & Renewal Fund
now that the Bates Ave WWTP expansion project has been completed. The detailed expenditures
related to operating costs are reflected in the individual department pages by 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 $896,578 (Community
Redevelopment Summary, page 256), based on 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 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 budgeting 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
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