Laserfiche WebLink
CITY OF LINO LAKES, MINNESOTA <br />MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS <br />DECEMBER 31, 2013 <br />FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF THE GOVERNMENT'S FUNDS <br />As noted earlier, the City of Lino Lakes uses fund accounting to ensure and demonstrate compliance with <br />finance related legal requirements. <br />Governmental Funds - The focus of the City of Lino Lakes' governmental funds is to provide information <br />on near-term inflows, outflows, and balances of spendable resources. Such information is useful in <br />assessing the City of Lino Lakes' financing requirements. GASB Statement 54, divides fund balances into <br />five categories: nonspendable, restricted, committed, assigned and unassigned. Definitions of these <br />categories can be found in Note 1.0 in the Notes to the Financial Statements. In particular, unassigned <br />fund balance may serve as a useful measure of a government's net resources available for unrestricted <br />spending at the end of the fiscal year. Approximately 8% of the total fund balance amount, or $1,815,739, <br />constitutes unassigned fund balance, which is available for spending at the government's discretion. The <br />remainder of fund balance is not available for new spending because it is restricted or has already been <br />committed or assigned for other purposes. As of the end of the current fiscal year, the City of Lino Lakes' <br />governmental funds reported combined ending fund balances of $21,577,573, an increase of $53,472, or <br />0.2%, from the previous year. This increase is primarily due to the receipt of special assessment <br />prepayments for the Improvement Note 2009F fund. <br />The general fund is the primary operating fund of the City of Lino Lakes. At the end of the current fiscal <br />year, unassigned fund balance of the general fund stood at $5,209,286, while the total fund balance was <br />$5,386,083. As a measure of the general fund's liquidity, it may be useful to compare unassigned fund <br />balance and total fund balance to total fund expenditures and financing uses. Unassigned fund balance <br />represents 61% of total general fund expenditures and financing uses, while total fund balance <br />represents 63% of that same amount. <br />The fund balance of the City of Lino Lakes' general fund increased by $152,266 during the current fiscal <br />year, while the city budget anticipated the use of up to $129,947 of the general fund balance. Overall, the <br />continued soft real estate market again resulted in reduced building activities this year which decreased <br />permit revenue. Even as signs of economic recovery were being seen, the remaining effects of the <br />recession also had an impact on property tax delinquencies. In addition, reduced expenditures, primarily <br />for personal services through vacant positions, and contractual services helped to offset the reduced <br />revenues. Overall, the general fund's revenues were within approximately 2% of the amended budget, <br />while expenditures and transfers were 4% below budgeted levels. <br />The G.O. improvement bonds 2005A fund has a total fund deficit of ($2,101,738). This fund is related to <br />the bonds issued for the Legacy Woods Edge improvement project. The payment of debt service and <br />delinquency in the collection of special assessments dedicated to this issue caused a significant <br />decrease in this fund. An interfund loan from the Capital Improvements fund has aided in the payment of <br />debt service for this issue. <br />The Improvement Note 2009F fund, to service the debt issued to Anoka County as the City's financial <br />commitment for the I -35E interchange project, ended the year with a fund balance of $996,291, an <br />increase of $995,800. The increase was directly due to the prepayment of a special assessment in 2013 <br />for this project. This note, which was originally in the amount of $4,260,000, was reduced in 2011 to the <br />current amount of $3,695,000 to reflect cost savings during the contruction of this project. <br />The Municipal State Aid fund, a capital projects fund used to finance reconstruction of state aid eligible <br />streets, ended the year with a fund balance of $4,595,797. This fund received a large advance from the <br />Minnesota Municipal State Aid in 2012 equal to the next five annual construction installments. These <br />funds will be used over the next several years to pay debt service on the Tax Increment Bonds 2007A <br />and the Improvement Notes 2009F, and for future MSA projects. <br />The area and unit charge fund has a total fund balance of $4,170,051, all of which is assigned for <br />financing capital improvements. The fund balance during the current year increased by $197,335, due in <br />large part to the partial repayment of an interfund loan from the Dedicated Parks fund. <br />CITY OF LINO LAKES, MINNESOTA <br />MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS <br />DECEMBER 31, 2013 <br />FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF THE GOVERNMENT'S FUNDS (CONTINUEDI <br />Proprietary funds - The City of Lino Lakes' proprietary funds provide the same type of information found <br />in the govemment-wide financial statements, but in more detail. <br />The water fund has total net position at year-end of $18,833,063, of which $4,972,620 is unrestricted. The <br />increase in net position of $519,918 was primarily due to operating income and capital contributions from <br />governmental activities. <br />Total net position in the sewer fund at the end of 2013 was $22,589,403, of which $8,026,562 was <br />unrestricted. The increase in net position of $2,440 was primarily due to capital contributions from <br />govemmental activities. <br />The water rates, which reflect water conservation efforts through a tiered rate structure, and sewer rates <br />were unchanged in 2013. A review of utility rates was completed in 2013. A 2% adjustment of water rates <br />and 4% adjustment of sewer rates will go into effect in January, 2014. <br />GENERAL FUND BUDGETARY HIGHLIGHTS <br />The original budget was amended several times during the year reflecting increases licences and <br />permits, public safety charges for services, MSA maintenance aid and police aid; reductions in property <br />tax revenue, fines revenue, interest earnings and other miscellaneous revenues; and reallocating <br />resources within the original budget. The final amended budget is $36,000 less than the original adopted <br />budget. <br />Revenues were $64,908 under budget for the year. This is due primarily due to change in market value of <br />investments which is not budgeted for and accounted for $50,343 of this variance, tax collections also <br />came in under budget by 588,321. These two larger variances were offset by greater than anticipating <br />planning and engineering fees and licenses due to increased construction activity and greater than <br />anticipated public safety charges for services due to higher than anticipated traffic control contracts. <br />Expenditures came in under budget by $337,910 due mainly to lower than expected personal services <br />costs from vacant positions and unspent contingency budgets. Energy costs for fuels and electricity were <br />higher than budgeted amounts, and supplies costs were generally lower than anticipated. Spending on <br />contractual services was lower overall from budgeted levels. The contingency budget of $147,975 was <br />unspent for the year, contributing 44% of the expenditure variance. There were also net transfers from <br />the general fund of $565,789. This resulted in a net fund balance increase of $152,266 for the fiscal year, <br />compared to the planned reduction of $129,947. <br />