Page 203 - City of Fort Worth Budget Book

Glossary and Acronyms

Levy: To impose taxes, special assessments, or service charges for the support of city activities. Also, the amount
of tax for an individual property or the sum of all individual amounts of tax.

Liabilities: Probable future sacrifices of economic benefits, arising from present obligations of a particular entity
to transfer assets or to provide services to other entities in the future as a result of past transactions or events;
what you owe.

Licenses and Permits: Payments received in connection with the city’s regulatory activities and its review and
issuance of permission to undertake an activity or pursue an occupation; they include utility franchise fees;
building, electrical, and plumbing permit fees; parking permit fees; health and safety permit fees; and occupational
license charges.

Line-Item Budget: A budget that lists each expenditure category (salary, materials, telephone service, travel,
etc.) separately along with the dollar amount budgeted for each specified category.
Long-Term Debt: Any un-matured debt that is not a fund liability and at the same time has a maturity of more
than one year.
Maintenance and Operations (M&O): Taxes that are generated by the taxing unit for general expenses.

Major Fund: Funds whose revenues, expenditures/expenses, assets, or liabilities are at least 10 percent of the
total for their fund category (governmental or enterprise) and 5 percent of the aggregate of all governmental and
enterprise funds in total.

Management Plan: A high-level strategic plan developed by the city’s executive-level staff that communicates
overall guidance and direction on Council goals and the organizational actions required to pursue those goals.
This plan assists departments in aligning their activities with Council goals.

Milestone: A task, event, or critical decision point related to an initiative or project. Milestones can be tracked to
evaluate achievement or level of completion of an initiative or project.

Mission: A statement describing an organization’s fundamental purpose.

Modified Accrual Accounting: Modified Accrual Basis of Accounting – The accrual basis of accounting adapted
to the governmental fund type spending measurement focus. Under this basis of accounting, revenues are
recognized when they become both “measurable” and “available” to finance expenditures in the current period.
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For example, revenue that is earned and measurable on April 1, is billed on April 30 , and paid on May 1 would
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not be recorded as revenue until payment is received on May 1 .
Municipal Bonds: Debt securities issued by a state, municipality, or county to finance its capital expenditures.
Municipal bonds are exempt from federal taxes and most state and local taxes, especially if you live in the state in
which the bond is issued.
Net Income: Proprietary fund excess of operating revenues, non-operating revenues, and operating transfers in
over operating expenses, non-operating expenses, and operating transfers out.
Net Position: Net Position is the difference between (a) assets and deferred outflows of resources and (b)
liabilities and deferred inflows of resources in a proprietary fund.

No-New-Revenue Rax Rate: Enables the public to evaluate the relationship between taxes for the prior year and
for the current year, based on a tax rate that would produce the same amount of taxes if applied to the same
properties taxed in both years.
Objective: The reason for making specific efforts or taking deliberate actions with the intent to attain or
accomplish an identified goal, targeted level, or meet a defined purpose; the broad, continuous goals of a
department.

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