C.A.F.R., FY 2019-20 with continuing disclosure tables

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State of Texas. The Council enacts legislation, adopts budgets, and determines policies of the City of Paris. The City Manager executes the laws and administers the government of the City. Economic Condition and Outlook Taxable values, as originally certified by the Lamar County Appraisal District, for fiscal year 2020-21 reflect a 7.23% increase over the 2019-20 values. Building permits for new residential and commercial construction were valued at $21,002,680 for fiscal year 2019-20. This activity should be reflected in next year's taxable values. Sales taxes for 2019-20 increased from the prior year by 11.90%. Current rebates are 20.13% above the 2019-20 rebates through July 2021. Hotel occupancy taxes were down 4.70% compared to 2018-19 taxes as COVID-19 hindered travelers. First quarter 2020-21 collections were an amazing 51.98% above the same period in 2019-20. Franchise fees for 2019-20 were up 9.48% compared to the previous year. The City of Paris, Paris Economic Development Corporation, and the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce have been actively recruiting new business to the area as well as supporting already existing businesses. PEDC has several active incentive commitments in regard to its recruitment of new industry and support of existing industry. American Spiral Weld is the latest recruitment success which will start up next year with an $113,042,600 market value and a $22,500,643 taxable value. General Fund receipts equaled 117.64% of budget. This surplus of revenues was caused primarily by Emergency Medical Service revenue and sales taxes. General Fund expenditures were 117.44% of budget. This variance is mainly due to expenditures for Public Safety and Public Health. For the 2020-21 fiscal year, the City Council adopted a tax rate of .48078 cents per $100 of value. This rate is $0.0353 cents lower than the previous year but does allow maintaining all services at their current levels and funds all required interest and sinking funds. Taxable property value increased 18.75%. Long-term Financial Planning and Relevant Financial Policies The City continues to update its long-range financial plan. The City formalized a key financial policy in 2010 that had been informally followed previously: a utility rate maintenance policy. The utility rate maintenance policy will help assure the financial integrity of the enterprise fund along with its related interest and sinking funds. Another policy was formalized in 2013 in the form of a reserve level guideline for both the general fund and utility fund. Adequate reserve levels provide the City with the ability to deal with extraordinary events and maintain its credit worthiness. This credit worthiness, as reflected in the current financial statements, allowed the City to obtain very favorable interest rates on the general obligation bonds issued in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020. Major Initiatives The City continues to work on its long-range plan to maintain its infrastructure. The City called for a general obligation bond election in May 2013 in the amount of $45,000,000 which passed overwhelmingly. Proceeds from these bonds were used for water and sewer infrastructure improvements. These bonds will be paid for out of utility system revenues. With the payoff of earlier debt issues, it was not necessary to raise utility rates to fund the new debt. Likewise a $9,750,000 bond election for I-3