C.A.F.R., FY 2011-12 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Hotel occupancy taxes were up 3.06% compared to 2010-11 taaces. Collection efforts on the delinquent taxes of two hotels have resulted in 2012-13 total collections being up 24.7% through January 2013. Franchise fees increased 0.42% over the previous year. This area is a major source of revenue to the City and is aggressively guarded by City officials. The City of Paris, Paris Economic Development Corporation, and Lamar County Chamber of Commerce have been actively recruiting new business to the area as well as supporting already existing businesses. 2012 saw the announcement that J. Skinner Baking Company was moving to Paris, bringing jobs and tax revenue to the City. Likewise, Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Campbell Soup Company announced major capital investments in their existing Paris facilities. General Fund receipts equaled 98.95% of budget. This shortfall of revenues was caused by slightly lower than anticipated collections on franchise taxes, ad valorem taxes, and interest earnings. General Fund expenditures were only 96.05% of budget with the Parks and Street Deparhnents being the biggest under spenders of their budgets. For the 2012-13 fiscal year, the City Council adopted a tax rate of .51107 cents per $100 of value. This is a decrease of 1.72% in the rate from the previous year. This rate allows maintaining all services at their current levels or above and funds the interest and sinking funds for the certificates of obligation issued in 2002, 2003, and 2010. It should be noted that the City refunded the 2002 and 2003 debt issues for savings in November 2012. Long-term Financial Planning and Relevant Financial Policies The City is in the process of developing and a new long-range financial plan given the substantial refunding of its outstanding debt for savings that occuned in February 2010 and November 2012. The City gained $1,993,902 in total debt service savings from the 2010 refunding and $582,380 from the 2012 refunding. 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 fmancial integrity of the enterprise fund along with its related interest and sinking funds. Another policy expected to be formalized in 2013 is 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 refunding bonds referenced above. Major Initiatives The City of Paris continues to work in environmentally related areas. Since 1984, over $50 million has been spent on water and wastewater improvements. The City is working on a new long range plan to maintain its infrastructure with an anticipated completion date of May 2013. In anticipation of the new long range plan, the City has called for a general obligation bond election in May 2013 in the amount of $45,000,000. Proceeds from these bonds would be used for water and sewer infrastructure improvements and be paid for out of utility system revenues. With the payoff of earlier debt issues, it will not be necessary to raise utility rates to fund the new debt. The City also continues to expand its effort in law enforc�ment related areas. Specifically, the City has targeted auto theft and the public schools. Programs in this effort include the Auto Theft Task Force and school resource officers at various schools. One other continuing law enforcement effort is to upgrade equipment through Justice Assistance grants. I-4