2004 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

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Council in the subsequent year's expenditures. The remainder of the fund balance is reserved and is not available for new spending because it has already been dedicated for various commitments. The general fund is the City's chief operating fund. At the end of the current fiscal year, unreserved fund balance of the general fund was $19,656,024, an increase of $1,515,666. This is primarily due to lower than budget expenditures on governmental funds. This is a direct result of the property taxes received, which has been detailed earlier. The park and recreation unreserved fund balance saw a decrease of $514,240. The major reason for this decrease is due to lower overall revenues as well as expenditures that had normal increases from the prior year. Since the Park fund is a recipient of property taxes, it has also experienced the problems that have been chronicled earlier. The South Bend building corporation fund is used to account for major capital construction. The unreserved fund balance decreased from $16,858,057 to $3,037,967. The explanation of this decrease is due to the completion of a new central fire station as well as a renovation to the central police station. There is a corresponding increase in the capital increases within the public safety programs. Individual fund data for each of the non -ma or governmental funds is provided in the form of the combining statements in the Supplemental 1'nformation portion. Proprietary funds. Enterprise funds are used to report the same functions presented as business- type activities in the government -wide financial statements. The City maintains seven individual enterprise funds. The basic proprietary fund financial statements can be found later in this report. Fiduciary funds. Fiduciary funds are used to account for resources held for the benefit of parties outside the government. The basic fiduciary funds financial statements can be found later in this report. General Fund Budgetary Highlights The City adopts an annual appropriated budget for its general fund. The final budget was greater than the original budget by $2,351,893. An amended original budget can be explained by either an encumbrance rollover or a current year budget overrun. The general fund budget is reviewed throughout the year and revised as needed with the approval of the City Council. At the end of the fiscal year the actual expenditures are projected and the budget is amended to prevent any budget overruns. The City tries to work within its original budget by increasing categories that will exceed budget while decreasing other categories to cover these overruns. If this transferring will not cover these expenditures then the City must appropriate from its fund balance. Of the $2,683,910, $2 million, was to amend the original budget to account for the transfer of funds to the health insurance fund to help alleviate increased costs. The remainder was prior year encumbrances that rolled over and were added to the original budget. The actual revenues are $19,603,741 under budget and expenditures are $3,395,055 under budget. The majority of $19 million can be explained by the property taxes that were not distributed by the County until early 2005. The under spending of the expenditures can be partially attributed to the fact that the City budgets at full staff and not all positions were filled in 2004. Also, overtime in public safety was down due to personnel being at full staff. In all, this saving provides evidence that the City's budget has been prepared on a conservative basis and has provided adequate resources to fund services provided. All cities have limited resources and, thus, limited numbers of programs and services that can e provided. We are proud to say that we have done well in terms of maintaining a solid, financially sound organization by spending within our paeans. Capital Asset and Debt Administration Capital assets. The Ci 's investment in capital assets for its governmental and business type activities at December l, 2004 amounts to $270,425,761 (net of accumulated depreciation. This investment in capital assets includes land, buildings, roads, improvements, service lines, 10