Recently, the City submitted the fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget to the State of Nebraska. The City composes the budget on a biennial basis, meaning information on revenues and expenditures is collected 2 years at a time, with FY 2023 being the 2nd year of the biennial budget.
There are many interesting things to discuss when it comes to the City’s budget, whether that be how the budget is created, the funds that the City manages, or how the revenue and expenditures for those funds are determined. For this blog, I thought it best to start with the largest fund of the City, the general fund, and show the different revenues that go into the general fund, as well as what types of expenditures the fund has.
The general fund contains the Administration Department, Community Development, Police Department, Fire Department, Public Properties, and the Beatrice Public Library. For FY 2023, the general fund has budgeted to expend $11.9 million, with $11.2 million in revenue and the additional $700,000 coming from reserves set aside from insurance proceeds from the June 2022 hail storm and EMS reserves. The graphic above shows a breakdown of the revenue sources, as well as where each tax dollar goes between the 6 different departments.
Funding for the general fund comes in a few different forms. The two largest sources of funds are property tax dollars and sales tax dollars. Revenue is also generated from charges for services, intergovernmental revenue, and occupation taxes, and a small portion of the budget is funded from licenses and permits and miscellaneous revenues.
The general fund’s largest type of expenditure, or cost, is personal services, which includes all labor costs for the general fund’s 6 departments. Other services and charges make up the second largest cost to the general fund. This type of expenditure includes outside labor costs, schools and conferences, software fees, insurance, and bad debt recoveries. The rest of the general fund’s expenditures come from supplies, capital outlays, and contractual services. The fund also budgets 1% of operating revenue for contingency. Contingency can be used on unanticipated expenditures, and in the past has been beneficial in covering costs associated with storm damage repairs and clean-up costs.
If you would like to review a copy of the general fund budget, as well as the budget for the City’s other funds, visit our website, make your way to the Finance page, and click the “Operating Budget” tab. Should you have any questions while reviewing the recently approved budget, or any other finance-related matters, please feel free to contact me.
I’d like to end by reminding the public that several meetings are held throughout the budgeting process to gather public input, as well as further educate the public on where funds are being spent. The first budget hearing is held sometime around the last week of August, with the budget being approved at a separate City Council meeting sometime in early September. Notice for these meetings is published in the Beatrice Daily Sun and also promoted on our social media accounts. Be sure to follow the City’s Facebook page to stay informed on when these hearings will be held.
Hannah Bell
Finance Director