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GUIDE TO READING THE PROPOSED BUDGET
The
Proposed Budget comprises two volumes that are broken down by sections. Although the Table of Contents outlines what
is contained in these sections, this guide serves to assist the reader in
better understanding how the document is structured.
County Manager's Budget Message
The
County Manager, who serves as the chief administrative officer of the County,
summarizes the Proposed Budget,
highlighting the outlook for revenues and taxes, expenditures, priority
programs and options for County Board initiatives for the FY 2006 budget.
Summary Schedules
Section A contains
tables and charts that summarize the budget.
The major components of this section are as follows.
Fund Descriptions: For accounting purposes, fiscal activities
in the County are separated by fund type. The fund descriptions outline the
categories of funds used for budget purposes.
Expenditure Summary - All Funds: This section illustrates all of the County
Government and School Board expenditures, by fund type.
General Fund Summary: This section illustrates major categories of
General Fund expenditures and revenues.
The General Fund is the primary operating fund of the County.
Pie Charts: The revenue chart illustrates the revenue
sources that comprise each dollar of Arlington's General Fund revenues. The expense chart details how each dollar
spent is distributed among various services within the General Fund.
County Government Summary: This summary provides a three year (FY 2004
Actual, FY 2005 Adopted and
FY 2006 Proposed) detail of staffing levels (funded full time equivalent
positions, or FTEs) and expenditures by department and fund.
Proposed
Budget Positions: This chart
summarizes the changes in full time equivalent positions (FTEs) between the FY 2005 adopted budget and the FY 2006 proposed budget, highlighting positions
added and eliminated.
Expenditure Comparison: This summary provides a three year
department-level detail of expenditures, including the change between the
current year and the proposed budget.
Policy Priorities: These proposals
address the demand for service levels in several key program areas beyond that
which is funded in the base proposed budget.
These initiatives are presented for consideration by the County Board as
possible additions to the budget.
Sufficient funding is available in the revenues identified in the
proposed budget to support these initiatives.
Status of Prior Year Strategic
Initiatives/Policy Priorities: The
FY 2004 and FY 2005 proposed budgets included a variety of policy and program
options as additions to current funding levels, a number of which were approved
by the County Board as part of the adopted budgets. This summary provides information on the status of implementation
of the FY 2004 strategic initiatives since the last update published in
the FY 2005 proposed budget, and of the FY 2005 policy priorities.
Multi-Departmental
Programs: A
list of Multi-Departmental Programs is included in this section to identify
certain programs with costs that overlap departments and funds. This is to give the reader a better
perspective on the overall County funding allocated for these types of
programs.
Arlington County Profile: Pertinent data about the County's history,
organizational structure, and demographics can be found in this section.
Revenue
Section B
provides an analysis of revenue trends and projections. The economic climate in Arlington County
serves as the basis for discussion about how FY 2006 proposed revenue estimates
are derived. This section includes
revenue reestimates for FY 2005 for all tax revenues, based on
year-to-date revenue collections and other factors that were not known when the
budget was adopted. All other (non-tax)
revenues in this section show the adopted budget amounts for FY 2005
(the current fiscal year). The
department narratives display adopted revenues for FY 2005, reflecting
the budgeted levels from the FY 2005 adopted budget. Information about the types of taxes that are levied in the
County are detailed in this section. Fee changes in the proposed budget are
also highlighted, and summaries are provided of other revenues by major
category.
Components of a Department Budget
Arlington
County government services are provided by departments that focus on particular
areas such as human services or public safety.
These departments typically, but not always, can be further subdivided
into programs. Sections C through K of this document provide information about
each of the County's General Fund departments.
An organization chart introduces the department and is followed by a
narrative and financial tables. Details
are as follows.
Organization
Chart: An illustration
of how departments are structured.
Department Budget Summary: The Summary provides the following
information:
The department Mission
Statement is a brief comment about the department's function in County
government.
FY 2006 Priorities state the department's
goals and provide insight into the areas into which the department is putting
its resources.
Principal Programs list
the major program areas of each department with a distribution graph.
Significant Budget Changes explains how the
department addresses the priorities set forth and highlights the major issues
and changes in revenue, expenditures, FTEs[1]
and programming.
Mission Outcome Measures provide data on
performance which relate the mission of the department to measurable
outcomes. Customer Measures
provide data on performance relating to customer needs and expectations.
Future
Budget Considerations describe factors that may impact future budgets.
These are also listed in the program narratives.
Program Narratives: More specific information about how
departments provide services and accomplish their goals is provided in the
program budgets.
The
program narratives begin with a Program Mission, stating why the program
exists, and a brief program description.
Budget
Tables illustrate
expenses and revenue by category, and FTEs.
These are shown for FY 2004 actuals, FY 2005 adopted budget, and the FY 2006 proposed budget. The categories
used to detail expenses and revenues may vary somewhat by department, depending
on unique circumstances. The major
categories include:
Personnel: Expenses for salaries, wages and employee
fringe benefits, such as retirement, health and life insurance. Normal salary increases and adjustments
mentioned in program/department narratives include position reclassifications,
market rate salary adjustments, and salary step increases.
Non-Personnel: Operating expenses such as office supplies,
equipment, maintenance contacts, telephone charges, and electricity.
Inter-Departmental
Credit: Reimbursement for services
performed by one department to support another County department, such as the
reimbursement from Arlington County Schools to the Department of Human Services
for physical therapy services in the School Health program.
Intra-County
Charges: Charges by one unit of County
government to support another unit's activities, such as construction work done
by the Department of Environmental Services in support of a Department of
Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources project.
Fees: Monies
received by the County as payment for services, goods or use of a facility,
such as residential refuse disposal fees and user fees for recreation
programs.
Grants: Monetary contributions, usually from state or federal agencies, to
be used for a specific purpose or activity, such as state transit aid for
operation of the trolley and transit stores.
Net
Tax Support: Net tax support is the
remainder determined by subtracting all state and federal aid, fees, and
charges from the total expenditures of the programs. It is used to estimate the amount of general tax dollars (as
opposed to program-specific revenues) that are required to provide services.
FTEs: Authorized reflects the number of FTEs which
are approved. Funded reflects the
number of authorized FTEs for which funds are budgeted.
Program
budgets contain Performance Measures, which typically span five years
from FY 2002 Actual to FY 2006 Estimate.
Measures are developed to reflect programmatic goals, objectives and
resources. These measures are designed
to track performance and are regularly updated to better reflect changing
goals. When measures are revised, prior
year data is often not available.
Current and proposed fiscal year measures are expressed as estimates.
The FY 2006 Goal represents a goal for program performance. In some instances, the figure in the Goal
column represents a standard (a level of performance expected for a particular
discipline or industry) or benchmark (a level of performance in another
jurisdiction identified as being "best in class").
Ten Year History: The history displays major changes within
the department over time and summarizes expenditures, revenue and authorized
FTEs.
Other General Fund Expenditures
Sections
L and M contain
information on other General Fund expenditure categories not included in
departmental budgets, including expenditures for Debt Service, Metro,
Regionals/Contributions, and Non-Departmental (including certain insurance
costs, building rent, contingents, and other miscellaneous expenses).
Other Operating Funds
Found
in Section N is a summary of the
funds that are not represented in the General Fund. Definitions of fund types can be located in Section A under Fund
Descriptions. Operating statements are
also included for these internal service, enterprise and special revenue
funds. These operating statements may
reflect estimated amounts, not appropriation amounts, in the FY 2005 Revised
columns.
Pay-As-You-Go Capital
Pay-As-You-Go
Capital refers to County projects, typically valued at $100,000 or more
($25,000 for technology), that are financed in the same fiscal year the project
is initiated. No borrowing or issuing
of bonds is undertaken to implement these projects. Section O
summarizes the projects planned by Arlington County in FY 2006.
Glossary and Appendices
A
glossary is located in Section P. The glossary defines key budget and
accounting terms used throughout the entire document. This section also contains commonly used acronyms. Also included in Section P is a chart with selected fiscal indicators for the
County, and the independent auditor's report and financial statements for the
prior fiscal year.
Calendar
Following
this guide is the budget calendar for FY 2006.
The fiscal year begins July 1, 2005 and ends June 30, 2006. Pertinent timetables surrounding formulation
and implementation of the budget are contained in this section.
[1]Full
Time Equivalent (FTE): A measure of
authorized personnel. 2,080 (2,912 for
uniformed firefighters) hours of work per year equates to one FTE.
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