Page 164 - CityofHaltomFY23Budget

CITY OF HALTOM CITY ANNUAL BUDGET, FY2023 Supplemental Information

MULTI-YEAR FINANCIAL OUTLOOK
General Fund

The Multi-year Financial Outlook for the General Fund is to continue to see increases in revenues
while budgeting expenses at an average of two percent increase while still building the overall fund
balance.

The long-term outlook in revenues is likely to be greater than projections, but just as with the
current budget, projections are developed by taking a conservative approach. Just the growth from
economic development should bring in the projected property and sales tax revenues. Tarrant
County Appraisal District valued property at a fourteen percent increase and is projecting values
to continue to increase despite market changes in real estate. Because the real estate demand in
Texas remains strong, the appraisal district believes we will continue to see increases in values in
future years. New commercial development occurring and continuing within our City will also mean
future increases in property values. Our sales tax base will also grow with new restaurants and
retail development expected in the IH-820 Corridor. We also have new retail occurring throughout
areas of the city to include new businesses and expansion of some current businesses that were
not on our sales tax base in prior years. The two completed industrial parks are now leasing spaces
to many new tax-producing industry’s which should be a tremendous sales tax benefit for the City
in the future. For the 2021-2022 budget year the City’s sales tax was up an average of over 9%
over last year. In the last month of the fiscal year, sales tax was up 12% over prior month last
year. Continued healthy revenues in both sales tax and property tax will determine the amount of
expenses in future years.

Future expenditures will be focused on remaining competitive with surrounding cities for employee
compensation and benefits. As a long-term goal of the City Council, they wish to retain and attract
high-quality staff as the city continues to operate with a very modest number of employees. When
a city is forced to forfeit yearly salary adjustments, there is a tendency to fall further behind like
markets. It can be very costly to try to catch up in future years and often leads to the inability to
ever catch up. Since the city has experienced this in the past, it is still slightly behind neighboring
cities for several positions/salaries. In the 2021-2022 budget year the city budgeted for a market
adjustment increase to get positions closer to market for like positions in the cities in which we
compete rather than doing the usual cost of living raises. In 2022-2023, the city budgeted a cost
of living increase due to larger than usual salary increases of neighboring cities. Other operational
expenses include the vehicle replacement program, and the information technology replacement
plan. Decision package items or one-time expense items will be considered in future years when
they generate efficiencies and effectiveness and the revenues for both property tax and sales tax
continue in an upward and favorable trend. Another long-term goal is to address critical facility and
infrastructure needs. The city will continue to find ways to fund these items so that they have little
to no effect on the citizens of the community.