Saunders provides FY24 revenue projections

Published 9:00 am Sunday, February 25, 2024

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Windsor Town Manager William Saunders presented fiscal year 2024 year-end revenue projections to the Windsor Town Council at its Feb. 13 meeting, noting that a surplus of more than $137,000 is expected, and no large change to real estate or personal property taxes is anticipated for FY 2025.

Explaining how the year-end revenue projections for the General Fund were calculated, Saunders stated that the numbers listed for January and all previous months were the actual numbers, while the numbers for February through June are estimated based on historical data, trends and assumptions.

“July and August are also included even though they’re outside of FY24 to show revenues that are rolled back into this fiscal year,” he said.

In a Feb. 13 memo written to the Windsor mayor and Town Council, Saunders stated that town staff were projecting ending the year with $137,563 more than budgeted.

“As we prepare the revenue projections for the upcoming budget year, a large deviation from the current fiscal year projections is not anticipated,” he said. “We do not anticipate any large change in our real estate or personal property taxes.”

He noted that the town’s other sources of revenue may fluctuate slightly, but he said he does not anticipate any significant changes from current conditions.

Current projections in water sales — not including “other income” — in the Water Fund anticipate the receipt of $13,580 more than the budgeted amount, he stated.

“We’ll continue to update our projections as we move through the fiscal year,” he said. “This data will be used to help determine revenues for the FY25 budget.”

He then highlighted several items on the projections spreadsheet included in the council meeting packet, which is accessible at www.windsor-va.gov/page/2024-town-council-agendas-and-minutes/.

For taxes on real property, the spreadsheet showed a deficit of only $33, with revenues low until April, May and June.

“Of course, these (taxes) are not due until June 5, so you’re not showing much there, and those payments received on those in July and August will roll back into this year’s budget,” Saunders said.

He noted that local sales and use tax was showing a small surplus of $13,648.

“July and August ’24 on that will roll back,” he said.

Then he turned his attention to the meals tax.

“In this case, as we talked about at the last work session, you don’t show all the meals tax in any given year, but we’re on track to have a surplus there, and the fourth quarter receipts will roll back into this fiscal year,” he said.

The surplus projected is $19,593.

He noted that consumer utility taxes “is one of the ones that’s flat or trending downward. July will roll back on that one.”

He projected a $5,449 deficit.

He explained that July 2024 will roll back into FY24 for the consumption tax.

July and August will roll back for motor vehicle licenses, which had a surplus of $1,265 listed.

As for the bank franchise tax, Saunders said, “We’re not really sure what that’s going to look like this year with TowneBank taking over Farmers Bank. We’re not really sure what they’ve done with their deposits that are held in town. We typically receive that in May, so this estimate is based on historical (data).”

The spreadsheet listed revenue and budget totals of $150,000 for the bank franchise tax, resulting in no projected surplus or deficit.

Saunders also pointed out that for both traffic fines and E-Summons, their amounts from July will roll back. Each had only minor variances projected, with a $912 deficit for traffic fines and a $499 surplus for E-Summons.

The largest surplus projected on the spreadsheet came from the revenue source listed as “Interest Earned” — $78,157. A total of $75,000 was budgeted, and $153,157 in revenues is projected.