LAKEPORT >> The City of Lakeport’s Finance Department reported an approximately $300,000 general fund budget surplus in its financial summary for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
Finance Director Daniel Buffalo presented the unaudited report to Lakeport City Council at its regular meeting this week. In it, he reported that low expenditures offset a decrease in major revenue sources, leading to the surplus.
“We wound up where we anticipated,” Buffalo said. “The city’s on a stable foot.”
According to the report’s numbers, the city spent only about $13.3 million (75 percent) out of the approximately $17.7 million it had budgeted for the time period of June 30, 2014 through June 30, 2015. The biggest savings came in the expenditures for the departments of housing, engineering and IT, and in Public Works relating to roads and parks.
When it came to the decrease in the city’s top ten revenue streams, the report showed that the budget had anticipated it. In comparison to the last fiscal year, there weren’t many significant changes except in and grants for the city.
Bradley-Burns sales taxes — normal taxes that are shared between the county, city, and states — were down 12.1 percent from the last fiscal year. Measure I sales taxes, which go directly to the city, were also lower: a change of five percent.
Buffalo said that low gas prices were to blame. According to him, gas and service stations make up 17 percent of the sales tax pie, thus when prices decreases so do the taxes on those receipts.
Another culprit, he said, was the unexpected implementation of Sacramento’s wrap up with its triple Flip Program, which redirected sales taxes to reimburse economic recovery bonds and restructured the finances of local agencies. Because a payment from the state was delayed in 2004, the city expected a lump sum to be paid in fiscal year 2014-2015.
“It’s not going to come in the way we thought,” he said. Instead, the city will receive more gradual payments.
Yet, some other areas were up. Most notably, there was a significant influx of revenue from business licensing tax.
Although Buffalo said that Lakeport was “bouncing back” from the recession, he couldn’t confirm whether that led to the spike in revenues from that area; it may just be the timing of the payments.
Other increases in revenue came from water, due to the drought causing higher operating costs.
Councilman Martin Scheel praised the report and told the Record-Bee that it shows the city has “been on track” to grow.
