The final numbers are coming through for the City of Turlock 2010-2011 fiscal year and the results are very good for the city and the employees. The city budgeted to end the year with a deficit spending of $2.2 million, which is covered by the General Fund Reserve. However, after a year of scrimping and saving where possible the City ended with a surplus of $50,000 that was put back into the General Fund Reserve.
A little over $1.6 million of the savings occurred in money budgeted for expenditure that was not spent.
Turlock City Manager Roy Wasden pointed out that this was accomplished with large and small savings. If a purchase could be avoided it was avoided, lights were turned off, heat was turned down or up (depending on the season), and employees did all they could to reduce costs while delivering the same level of service. Additionally, vacant positions were held open, or if positions had to be filled, they were filled with internal movement and other positions were held vacant.
"Turlock City employees worked very hard and Council appreciates them very much,” stated Wasden. “We will get through these difficult financial times."
According to City’s agreements with employees when concessions were made during the budgeting process, employees will be rewarded with a seven month one time restoration of 4.5% of the original 9% cuts in recognition of all the hard work employees did to close the 2010/2011 fiscal year with no deficit spending. All employee concessions for the 2011/2012 remain in place and the City will be in negotiation with all the City employee associations for the 2012/2013 fiscal year in the near future.
City employees will see an increase in their pay checks beginning December 5, 2011, and run through the last pay check in June as the 2011-12 fiscal year ends. The pay increase will come out of this year’s budget and total around $500,000.
Along with the budget savings contributed to the staff’s hard work, the remaining amount of the surplus was due to some one-time revenue increases and some slight increases in overall revenue including sales tax revenue.
Sales tax revenue for 2010-11 totaled $10,220,484. This compares to a budget of $8.7 million for 2010-11 and actual revenue of $9,082,137 for 2009-10. This included in the 2010-11 revenue approximately $550,000 in one-time revenue along with significant year over year increased revenue related to the higher fuel costs. The City has budgeted $9.5 million in sales tax revenue for 2011-12.
The City of Turlock hopes to see this positive revenue trend will continue. They have cautiously budgeted a 2% revenue increase in the 2011-2012 fiscal year. However, City staff members have continued their efforts to find ways to save.
