Dear Council and Staff,
Please make the Budget at a Glance more transparent to the reader. In addition, the City needs to stop conflating tax revenue and expenses (General Fund) with fees collected for service (Enterprise Funds).
1) Total revenue should only be taxes collected by the City, which include Property Tax, TOT, sales tax, UUT, and others. Fees Collected for Water and Waste Water should be separate as they are not revenue for the City. They are fees for service. Total expenditures for the General Fund are distinct from expenditures for the Enterprise Funds. This needs to be delineated so there is no conflation between tax revenue and fees for service and the costs to run the City versus the cost to run the Enterprise Funds. 2) In Capital Projects, denote the funding source, especially when it the funding source is the Enterprise Fund.. For instance, Well #4 is Water Fund and Sewer Master Plan is Sewer Fund. When you do not denote the funding source, it creates confusion. Capital Improvements which come from Water Fund and Sewer Fund should be on the page associated with the Enterprise Funds.
3) On the Enterprise Funds, you have one circle for both revenue and expenses. This does not make sense. Can use a chart that show revenue and a chart that shows expenses.
Please denote Cost Allocation within the expense portion. The current circle representation is not clear.
See attached screenshots.
Thank you,
Kate Haug