Page 21 - City of Westlake FY20 Budget

Section 01 Executive
Transmittal Letter

VI. ADOPTED BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 19-20

The GENERAL FUND is the Town’s principle operating fund, and is supported by sales and use taxes,
development fees, ad valorem property taxes, and other revenue sources. These revenues may be used
for a variety of purposes, as determined by the Town Council. The General Fund budget accounts for
core Town services such as fire and emergency services, planning and development, public works,
finance, parks, trails, facilities, and administrative oversight.

Revenue Highlights
The adopted revenues are budgeted to reflect a 24%
decrease of $3.6M from the prior year due to the receipt
of one-time commercial permit fees received in FY18-19
and the reduction of Franchise Fees due to legislative
changes.

The largest revenue source in the General Fund is sales
and use tax revenues which are budgeted to be $5.4M
and represents 49% of the General Fund’s total revenues
and sources. This reflects a 2% decrease of $115K when
compared to prior year estimates.

The Town previously entered into a situs agreement
regarding construction materials’ sales tax being sited in
Westlake; it is anticipated this will end during FY 19-20.
This decrease will be offset by additional sales and use tax from the operations of Schwab Phase I as well
as additional construction anticipated throughout Westlake.

The second largest revenue source is from permits and fees charged for development activities which
are budgeted to be $2.6M comprising 24% of the General Fund’s total revenues and sources. This
reflects a 51% decrease of $2.8M when compared to prior year estimates. As stated previously, this is
primarily due to the receipt of Schwab permit fees in the prior year. Revenue from residential permits
is projected to be $1.5M for 32 permits with commercial permits projected at $1.5M for Entrada, Front
44, Solana, and Deloitte University.

The third largest revenue source in the adopted General Fund budget is our ad valorem property tax
revenues. The Maintenance and Operations (M&O) portion of the rate is budgeted to be $1.6M
comprising 15% of the General Fund total revenues and sources. This reflects a 6% decrease of $98K
when compared to prior year estimates. Additional debt related obligations were used in calculating the
tax rate for the current year which shifted funds from the General Fund to the Debt Service Fund.

The largest variance to the remaining General Fund revenues is related to Franchise Taxes. They are
budgeted to be $316K, a 62% decrease of $514K from prior year. A reduction in franchise fee revenue is
estimated based on the recent passage of Senate Bill 1152, which authorizes a cable or phone company to
stop paying the lesser of the state cable franchise or telephone access line fees for the company
statewide. Companies have until October 1st of every year to provide municipalities notice of the fee they
plan to pay. Fees are collected from utilities and telecommunications companies that use our Town right-of-
way. A flat rate is charged to both telephone operators (adjusted annually) and Tri-County Electric based on
the number of access lines and services rendered, respectively.

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