Untitled - Town of Windham

FINANCE DEPARTMENTREVENUE HIGHLIGHTSWhat is referred to as the “General Fund Revenues” represents the majority of revenue, outside of propertytaxes, received through general operations of the town (i.e. motor vehicle registrations, revenues from thestate, departmental income, etc). Once the Town budget is approved in March, the Finance office tracks therevenues received throughout the year and estimates the total expected general revenues that can be used tosupport the approved spending for that year. The estimated general revenues, combined with any fundsavailable from the previous year’s ending fund balance, will be deducted from the approved budget, and theremainder is raised through annual property taxes. Chart A above adjusts for the impact of the “Funds fromOther Sources”, which represents a direct offset to a particular appropriation article in a given year, and thusvaries from year to year.The net increase in General Fund revenues for tax rate setting purposes is $203,301. This is primarily due toan additional $167,622 in fund balance available to be used to reduce the tax rate in 2012 (this will bediscussed later in this report) and additional license, permit and other departmental fee income in 2012. As aresult of the increased revenues, combined with the $9,105 decrease in net appropriations in 2012, the amountneeded to be raised through taxation decreased. Although some portions of the revenue budget generallyremain steady from year to year, such as motor vehicle registrations and departmental income, other portionssuch as grant funds and State revenues tend to vary from year to year and have a significant impact on theresulting Town tax rate.As illustrated above:• Approximately 60% of the Town’s annual budget is raised through general taxation. The otherapproximately 40% is from other revenue sources as noted in Chart A.• Of the 40% revenues collected in 2012 through operations, 17% came from State funding (Meals &Rooms Distribution and Highway Block Grant), 11% was from use of fund balance, leavingapproximately 72% coming from local revenue sources.• Chart A reflects the change in budgeted revenues from one year to the next, however, a full revenuereport containing actual results for 2012 and 2011 can be found later in this report.Other Town Revenues: For certain appropriation articles that are partly funded through grants funds, capitalreserve funds or issuance of bonds, the revenues are detailed in Chart A and are recorded in the year in whichthe project was approved by the voters, not necessarily the year in which it was received.Other revenues are accepted by the Board via public hearings throughout the year. These include State,Federal and private source grants and/or donations which are accepted and expended for a specified purposeduring the year, and as such, are not considered a general revenue to the Town for tax rate setting purposes.Of note for 2012 was an additional federal energy grant of $7,200, for energy audits of Town buildings, aswell as $22,496 received from the NH Department of Homeland Security to fund equipment for use by ourFire department, as well as additional funds used to cover the cost to provide specialized training to our publicsafety personnel.TOWN DEBTDuring 2012 the Town paid the first payment of a two-year bond to fund the purchase of a new fire engine.This represents the only general municipal debt funded through taxation. It should be noted that the Townalso continues to pay down a $100,000 renovation bond for the Searles building as shown below, however thisdebt payment is fully funded through rental revenues from the operation of the building and not from theTown’s operating budget. The Town also has entered into several lease/purchase arrangements for Police,Fire, Highway and Transfer Station vehicles and equipment, the annual principal and interest payments forwhich are contained in the Town’s annual operating budget.2012 ANNUAL REPORTS 67 TOWN OF WINDHAM, NH