04-27-2015 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF LINO LAKES, MINNESOTA NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS December 31, 2013 Note 1 SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (CONTINUED2 E. LEGAL COMPLIANCE — BUDGETS (CONTINUED) 7. A capital improvement program is reviewed periodically by the City Council for the Capital Project Funds. However, appropriations for major projects are not adopted until the actual bid award of the improvement. The appropriations are not reflected in the financial statements. 8. Expenditures may not legally exceed budgeted appropriations at the department level unless approved by the City Council. Therefore, the legal level of budgetary control is at the department level (i.e. administration, community development, public safety, public services, and other). 9, The City Council may authorize transfers of budgeted amounts between City funds. F. CASH AND INVESTMENTS Cash and investment balances from all funds are pooled and invested to the extent available in investments authorized by Minnesota Statutes. Earnings from investments are allocated to individual funds on the basis of the fund's equity in the cash and investment pool. The City provides temporary advances to funds that have insufficient cash balances by means of an advance from another fund shown as interfund receivables in the advancing fund in the governmental fund financial statements, and an interfund payable in the fund with the deficit, until adequate resources are received. These interfund payables are eliminated for statement of Net position presentation. Investments are stated at fair value and interest earnings are accrued at year-end. For purposes of the statement of cash flows the Proprietary Fund considers all highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. All of the cash and investments allocated to the proprietary fund types have original maturities of 90 days or less. Therefore, the entire balance in such fund types is considered cash equivalents. Permanently restricted cash and investments represents the principal portion of resources received that must be retained in a permanent fund. Only earnings from these funds may be used for purposes that support environmental maintenance and improvements. G. PROPERTY TAX CREDITS Property taxes on homestead property (as defined by State Statutes) are partially reduced by property tax credits. These credits are paid to the City by the State in lieu of taxes levied against homestead property. The State remits these credits through installments each year. These credits are recognized as revenue by the City at the time of collection. CITY OF LINO LAKES, MINNESOTA NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS December 31, 2013 Note 1 SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (CONTINUEDZ H. PROPERTY TAX REVENUE RECOGNITION The City Council annually adopts a tax levy and certifies it to the County in December (levy/assessment date) of each year for collection in the following year. The County is responsible for billing and collecting all property taxes for itself, the City, the local School District and other taxing authorities. Such taxes become a lien on January 1 and are recorded as receivables by the City at that date. Real property taxes are payable (by property owners) on May 15 and October 15 of each calendar year. Personal property taxes are payable by taxpayers on February 28 and June 30 of each year. These taxes are collected by the County and remitted to the City on or before July 15 and December 15 of the same year. Delinquent collections for November and December are received the following January. The City has no ability to enforce payment of property taxes by property owners. The County possesses this authority. Within the governmental fund financial statements, the City recognizes property tax revenue when it becomes both measurable and available to finance expenditures of the current period. In practice, current and delinquent taxes and State credits received by the City in July, December and the following January are recognized as revenue for the current year. Taxes and credits not received at the year-end are classified as delinquent and due from County taxes receivable. The portion of delinquent taxes not collected by the City in January is fully offset by deferred inflows of resources because it is not available to finance current expenditures. Deferred inflows of resources in governmental fund are susceptible to full accrual on the govemment-wide statements. The City's property tax revenue includes payments from the Metropolitan Revenue Distribution (Fiscal Disparities Formula) per State Statute 473F. This statute provides a means of spreading a portion of the taxable valuation of commercial/industrial real property to various taxing authorities within the defined metropolitan area. The valuation "shared" is a portion of commercial/industrial property valuation growth since 1971. Property taxes paid to the City through this formula for 2013 totaled $1,094,578. Receipt of property taxes from this "fiscal disparities pool" does not increase or decrease total tax revenue. 1. SPECIAL ASSESSMENT REVENUE RECOGNITION Special assessments are levied against benefited properties for the cost or a portion of the cost of special assessment improvement projects in accordance with State Statutes. These assessments are collectible by the City over a term of years usually consistent with the term of the related bond issue. Collection of annual installments (including interest) is handled by the County Auditor in the same manner as property taxes. Property owners are allowed to (and often do) prepay future installments without interest or prepayment penalties. Within the fund financial statements, the revenue from special assessments is recognized by the City when it becomes measurable and available to finance expenditures of the current fiscal period. In practice, current and delinquent special assessments received by the City are recognized as revenue for the current year. Special assessments are collected by the County and remitted by December 3l (remitted to the City the following January) and are also recognized as revenue for the current year. All remaining delinquent, noncurrent and special assessments receivable in governmental funds are completely offset by deferred inflow of resources. Deferred inflows of resources in governmental funds are susceptible to full accrual on the government -wide statements.