GENERAL FUND

General Fund Overview

The General Fund pays for the City’s basic services. This includes police, planning, transportation planning, street light maintenance and costs, building activity and general administration. In addition, the General Fund also provides for the following:

• Operational support to the Parks Fund

• General Debt Service payments

• Transfer to the Capital Improvements Fund for new parks, transportation and other infrastructure projects

• Grant support to the Arvada Center

The following table provides a comparison of budgeted cash balances, revenues and expenditures to actual amounts.

• The 2023 beginning fund balance was $70,114,000.

• $3,842,062 of the fund balance is dedicated to projects not completed in 2022, one-time items and new requests.

• The 2023-2032 ten-year financial plan requires the use of $29,129,232 to balance. A 10-year plan will be updated this summer in conjunction with the 2024 budget cycle.

GENERAL FUND ENDING FUND BALANCE BY QUARTER COMPARED TO FUND BALANCE GOAL OF 17% OF BUDGETED EXPENDITURES

Revenue Highlights

• Overall revenues increased $1,355,410 or 2.5% over 2022.

• Franchise fees saw an increase of $297,705 or 15.2% over 2022. This increase is due to increased collections from Xcel energy as energy and natural gas charges to customers increased in 2023 over 2022.

• Building Use tax and building permits saw a decrease of $2,331,586 or 41.0%. In 2022 there was a permit for a large commercial project which leads to this decrease.

• Court fines and fees saw an increase of $89.977 or 20.4% over 2022.

• Sales tax saw an increase of $1,808,370 and is discussed in more detail in the “Sales Tax” section.

• General use tax saw a decrease of $9,294 and is discussed in more detail in the “Use Tax” section.

• Auto use tax saw a decrease of $149,641 and is discussed in more detail in the “Use Tax” section.

Sales Tax

• Sales tax collections lag one month; therefore, collections for the second quarter represent five months’ collections.

• Sales tax is up 6.3% for the second quarter.

• The following categories are up over the same time in 2022: grocery stores 4.7%, merchant wholesalers 19.0%, internet retailers 11.3%, limited service restaurants 22.5%, cable providers 40.0%, and local messengers 56.0%.

• The following categories are down from the same time in 2022: full service restaurants (2.3%), liquor stores (13.7%), and furniture stores (14.0%).

Use Tax

Building Use Tax

• Building use tax decreased 45.1% for the second quarter.

• This decrease is due to some large commercial projects starting in 2022.

• We expect this revenue source will meet its budget for 2023.

Auto Use Tax

• Auto use tax decreased 3.5% for the second quarter.

• We are seeing a slowdown in this area and will continue to monitor this revenue source throughout the year.

General Use Tax

• General use tax decreased 2.9% for the second quarter.

• This decrease is due to several businesses with larger use tax remittances in 2022. This revenue will continue to be monitored throughout the year.

Budgeted General Fund Revenues

Sales Tax Collections

Use Tax Collections

Property Tax

• The City’s property tax rate is 4.31 mills per $1,000 of valuation.

• 2023 property tax is based on the mill which is placed on the assessed valuation from 2022.

• Property tax slightly increased 0.1% over 2022 and should meet budget.

Property Tax Collections

Intergovernmental Revenues

• Highway Users Tax Fund (HUTF), the City’s share of statecollected gas tax revenue, is down 13.5% for the second quarter. This tax is collected on the number of gallons of gas sold.

• Road and Bridge funds, the City’s share of property tax collected by Jefferson County & Adams County and dedicated to the maintenance of roads and bridges is up 2.5% over last year due to increased assessed valuations.

Intergovernmental Revenues

Expenditure Highlights

• Overall expenditures increased $14,341,515 or 32.0% over 2022.

• Attributing to the majority of this increase is an increase of $9,477,314 or 117.4% increase in transfers. This is due to the timing of transfers to the Capital Improvement Fund. These transfers were made early in 2023 and later in 2022.

• Personnel charges increased $4,520,579 as team members received a 3% pay increase August 1, 2022 and January 1, 2023 and an additional 38 FTE’s were approved in the 2023 budget.

• Services and charges increased $1,684,124 or 28.1% from 2022. This is due to increases in training, dues and subscriptions and contract services.

• Supplies and expenses saw an increase of $357,339 or 8.6% over 2022. This is primarily due to contributions to the computer replacement and maintenance fund to support additional costs associated with technology.

Salary and Benefit

2023 Budgeted General Fund Expenditures

• Personnel costs increased due to large number of new positions for 2023 and a mid-year pay adjustment in 2022, not yet factored in. The 2023 pay plan included 38 new positons. The City increased employee’s pay in the 3rd quarter of last year to accommodate for unusually high inflation.