Halfway through fiscal year 2011, Santa Barbara’s finances are under budget, and it looks as if the city will finish the year balanced without many major adjustments.
At Tuesday’s Finance Committee meeting, city staff said tax revenues are showing growth from last year, and departments that seem to be coming up short will compensate with spending cuts.
Fewer labor concessions are coming in than expected, and there were some additional expenses from the adopted budget. The bill came from Santa Barbara County for Measure T, the failed medical marijuana dispensary ban that cost the city $20,000 to put on the ballot, and the Fire Department spent $40,000 on portable defibrillators.
There is still $727,000 coming in savings from the suspension of vacation cash-outs.
The city uses transient occupancy taxes as a leading indicator of tax revenue, unlike other jurisdictions that use sales taxes. Bed taxes are “our big performer this year,” treasury manager Jill Taura said.
From the previous fiscal year, TOT taxes showed 9.7 percent growth through Dec. 31, which brings estimates for year-end totals up to 2006 levels.
Property taxes are the largest source of general fund revenue and should come in around the budgeted amount, at $22.8 million. Utility user taxes are on track overall, with 0.4 percent growth expected.
The city is facing revenue shortfalls in mutual aid funding — getting reimbursed for responding to fires outside city lines — from a “historically slow” fire season, Chief Andrew DiMizio said. And Taura said Parks & Recreation Department field and facility rentals are also down.
On the spending side, the police and fire departments have gone over budget with overtime costs. The Police Department is likely to close the gap by the end of the year, since Fourth of July and Fiesta overtime hours were one-time costs and happened at the beginning of the fiscal year.
However, the Fire Department is $422,934 over budget because of an “extraordinary” number of people out on sick and medical leave this year. The department has to backfill to keep minimum staffing standards, which creates the overtime costs, according to accounting manager Rudy Livingston. At this point, it’s unclear whether the department will come in over its budget.
Livingston said the water, downtown parking, golf and waterfront enterprise funds fell short in revenues but plan to compensate with spending cuts.
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews.