Fort Worth ends fiscal year with money to pay for purchases, one-time capital projects

The city ended its fiscal year Friday with shortfalls in some departments, unspent money in others and an estimated $2.2 million in excess sales and property tax revenue.

Although Fort Worth is still a few weeks away from closing the books for good on fiscal 2016, the City Council last week approved a year-end budget adjustment ordinance that allows some of the money to be spent on some one-time capital projects and purchases that would have been covered in the fiscal 2017 budget.

All told, the city projects to end fiscal 2016 with $10 million to $12 million extra. The city begins its fiscal year on Oct. 1.

The council approved moving $1.97 million in savings from the Police Department budget in the general fund to cover shortfalls in the city manager’s and secretary offices, code compliance, property management and fire departments and the financial management office.

The Fire Department spent an extra $1 million for vehicle repairs that cost more than expected, code compliance was short $440,000 because of stepped-up mosquito monitoring and spraying, and the city’s electric bill was $179,000 more than budgeted, according to a council report.

Nearly $6 million in surplus cash in the general fund is being divided among projects and purchases in seven departments.

That includes money to pay for a strategic plan in the economic development office, purchasing physical agility equipment for the Fire Department, remodeling the central library restrooms, buying surveillance and in-car cameras for the Police Department, replacing the roofs on two city buildings, buying trucks for pothole repairs, getting more traffic signal lights and paying to update the street design manual to support the Thoroughfare Plan Update and Complete Streets Plan.

The ordinance also provides an extra $40,000 to Senior Citizen Services of Tarrant County, which asked for additional money to pay for more program directors. The organization provides services at several Fort Worth community and recreation centers. It had asked for $80,000 more, or double what it receives, but that won’t be added until a service assessment is completed.

The remainder, a projected $4 million, will be applied to reserve funds. Because the fiscal 2017 budget is larger, the reserve requirement grows and would be about $88.1 million, up from $84.2 million in fiscal 2016. The amount is about 14 percent of the budget.

“We’re ending the year in pretty good shape,” City Manager David Cooke said. “The general fund will perform better than budgeted. We’ve built in some cushion for ourselves.”

An additional $3.1 million is being moved from several funds to complete the new phone system, a project that was started last year. The money represents those funds’ proportional share of the project, Cooke said.

In September, the council approved a nearly $1.7 billion budget, a 2.5 percent increase from fiscal 2016. The city budgeted a $24 million increase in revenue from property taxes and $4 million in sales taxes. The general fund pays for the city’s day-to-day operations and the police and fire departments.

The fiscal 2017 general fund is $639 million.

This story was originally published October 2, 2016 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Fort Worth ends fiscal year with money to pay for purchases, one-time capital projects."