The Finance Committee is meeting 07/12/2021 at 5:30PM.
They will be voting on Resolution #8-R-20 which is about the City of Appleton Brand Study. This item was held at the 06/21/2021 Finance Committee meeting because there was a possibility of the city getting some kind of funding for the study and the committee wanted to present both the resolution and the funding option to the Council as a complete unit.
It also looks like there’s a lot of highly financial stuff that will be happening at this particular finance committee meeting. They will be discussing and voting on requests to sell $14,500,000 of General Obligation Promissory Notes, $8,360,000 Water System Revenue Refunding Bonds, and $9,040,000 Sewerage System Revenue Refunding Bonds. Brad Viegut from Robert W Baird & Co will be giving a presentation on that.
The city also has a larger than normal General Fund balance (or, as it’s describe in the memo to the committee, “an unadjusted general fund balance of $7,011,075 in excess of the City’s reserve policy at December 31, 2020”) and they will be voting on allocating that money.
As Mayor Woodford and Finance Director Tony Saucerman explain in the memo…
There were a few major factors that contributed to the excess. First, three of the City’s TIF Districts are paying back advances (loans) that the general fund made in prior years. As the advances are paid back, this adds available cash to the general fund balance. The result of these TIF advance repayments in 2020 was a $1,660,000 increase in the unassigned general fund balance.
Second, federal CARES funding for COVID-19 relief expenses also played a significant role in generating the surplus. Approximately $1.3 million of these grant funds were able to be used pay to for public health and public safety personnel costs which replaced the budgeted general fund spending.
Third, overall health care claims costs and expenses were down in 2020 which generated approximately $850,000 in savings to the general fund. Finally, on the revenue side, the City received approximately $850,000 of grant funds from FEMA and the State of Wisconsin in 2020 as reimbursement for storm damage cleanup costs from storms in prior years. This revenue was not included in the 2020 Budget since the approved amount and timing for receiving these funds were unknown, and extremely difficult to predict, at the time of budget preparation.”
Memo Regarding General Fund Balance Policy from Mayor Woodford and Finance Director Saucerman (07/12/2021)
[I would expect that when property owners in the city learn about this excess of funds, they will want to know if their taxes are going to go down as a result.]
They will also be voting on a $1.3 million budget adjustment and also listening to an information item regarding some smaller budget adjustments that were approved without a vote by the Mayor and the Finance Director per city policy.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=870495&GUID=EE6BB9D8-F33E-4E43-951B-D3601C9755A8&Options=info|&Search=
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