SR 05:300 - Laserfiche WebLink

Workers' Compensation Funds Both the Workers' Compensation Fund and the Livermore-Pleasanton Workers' Compensation Fund expenses came in under budget. Presumably this is due in part to the success of efforts to control costs, as well as complicated accounting rules that require the recognition of potential expenses due to injuries that have already been incurred but not reported (which could result in some of the expenditures incurred this year having already been recognized and funded in prior years). Staff will need to perform a more detailed analysis to determine the exact reasons for this. Emplovee Benefit Fund The Employee Benefit Fund (EBF) is used to account for non-salary employee costs. The Departments' budgets are charged for benefit expenses as a percent of salary, and the dollars then flow to the EBF, where the actual costs are recorded. For FY05, expenditures were slightly under budget ($20,000), but the EBF ended the year with $146,000 more in revenues, primarily because contributions from the Operating Funds exceeded estimates. Thus net income is $166,000 greater than projected for FY05. It was anticipated that for FY05, the Fund would draw down $365,000 of its reserves (that resulted from prepayments made in prior years to smooth the budget). Instead, only $198,000 of the prefunded reserve dollars were used, leaving an ending fund balance of $446,000. From this fund balance, $279,000 was appropriated for FY06 expenditures, as part of the recent two-year budget adoption. ALL OTHER OPERATING FUNDS For the most part, budget variances are small for the other Operating Funds. The budget for the 2004 Refunding Certificates of Participation was not previously set up, so staff is reflecting that correction as a recommended yearend budget amendment. A few Replacement/Renovation Funds, Landscape District Funds and Geologic Hazard District Funds were slightly over budget, due to additional costs or added work needed. Additional revenues and offsetting expenditures are reflected for both the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Law Enforcement Grant Funds. A small expenditure budget correction is shown for the Lower Income Housing Fund. However, Lower Income Housing fees were $826,000 less than projected, and $390,000 in State "HELP" grant funds had not been received by yearend. Staff is carrying over these revenue projections for now, but will need to review them in more depth as part of the Midyear 06 budget update to determine if this is only a timing issue, or if the development fee revenue projections need to be revised. For all other Operating Funds, budget to actual variances are small. Therefore staff is recommending only a few minor budget changes, as outlined in Appendix A. SR 05:300 16