Credit Jefferson City officials with working to avoid repetition of past budget problems.
Interim Finance Director Bill Betts has created and posted a revenue model for the city. The model breaks down revenues into 13 separate categories and lists expected revenues for the current fiscal year, actual year-to-date collections and projected shortfalls or surpluses.
The model will serve as a useful tool for city officials and will promote public understanding and transparency of the budget process.
Budgeting may be described as a blending of an exact science, mathematics and human guesswork.
Betts crafted the model to minimize guesswork. "There's science and math to the initial number, then it's common sense," he said. "If we know things are going to happen, we should build those in."
Revenues, particularly sales tax revenues, fluctuate. Retailers have attributed slow sales during the past several months to cold temperatures and harsh winter weather.
The revenue model is designed to monitor those trends. "We'll see it (a budget problem) before it happens, hopefully," Betts said, referring to a $1.68 million budget shortfall that bedeviled the city last year.
Another purpose of the model is to show the scope and detail of city revenues. Sales tax revenue - budgeted at about $9.6 million in the $28.1 million budget - is the single largest category, but it is only about a third of the entire budget.
Other revenue comes from: franchise and utility taxes, more than $7 million; property taxes, more than $5 million; and fines and forfeitures, more than $1 million.
The budget model includes an overall summary of the 13 revenue categories and greater specifics within each category. It can be found on the city's home page, www.jeffcitymo.org, under current events.
The revenue model is a welcome addition. City officials will be able to react more quickly to changing trends and the public will be able to access a comprehensive, updated revenue picture.