City projects balanced budget in next fiscal year

The Malibu City Council will hear a staff report next Monday, April 22, projecting a balanced budget for the city in the next fiscal year, as well as greater-than-projected reserves. 

Staff is projecting General Fund revenues of $21.9 million and expenditures of $21.8 million. The city’s reserve fund, formally titled the General Fund Undesignated Reserve Fund, is projected to be $12 million. That number meets a council goal set last year (and first proposed in 2011) of always holding in reserve at least 50 percent of its yearly operating budget in case of emergency. 

The $12 million is more than $2.1 million more than anticipated, according to the staff report, which was released Friday (see the full budget attached left). 

“This significant increase is due to the $1 million reimbursement that the City received from the Civic Center Wastewater Treatment Facility Communities Facilities District; $1 million of additional General Fund revenue and conservative spending in Fiscal Year 2012-13,” the report states.

Revenues for each of the city’s tax revenue sources–property tax, documentary transfer tax, transient occupancy tax, utility user’s tax and sales tax–are expected to increase in the coming fiscal year.

The documentary transfer tax revenue is projected to increase $85,000  from the prior fiscal year due to increased real estate sales, according to the report. Several new retail and restaurant outlets are expected to contribute to a $225,000 increase in sales tax revenue. 

Total projected increases in revenue from the previous fiscal year are $985,000. 

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