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Agenda 05/27/2008 Item #10D p<}?nda Item No.1 OD May 27,2008 Page 1 of 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Recommendation to approve a budget amendment reducing budgeted revenues in the General Fund (001) for Fiscal Year 2008 in the amount of $6,752,500. OBJECTIVE: To obtain approval from the Board of County Commissioners (Board) for a budget amendment reducing the budgeted sales tax and State revenue sharing revenues in the General Fund (001) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2008, and to provide an update on the ad valorem revenues in the General Fund for FY 2008. CONSIDERATIONS: The adopted FY 2008 Budget includes Local Government half- cent Sales Tax Revenue and County Revenue Sharing in the amounts of $35,700,000 and $9,489,500 respectively. .-- Economic conditions are severely impacting State shared revenues; sales tax revenues are one of the hardest hit. Consequently, the State of Florida is recommending local governments revise their forecasts downward for sales tax and revenue sharing revenues. Based ori State recommendations, staff is projecting that Local Government half-cent Sales Tax revenues will be approximately $30,400,000 for FY 2008. Staff is estimating County Revenue Sharing to be approximately $8,037,000. The revenue estimates, provided by the State, for local governments for these two revenues has been revised downward twice in the current fiscal year. The first downward revision was in December, 2007 and the second downward revision came in mid-March, 2008. The last revision placed Collier County's revenues for sales tax at $32,000,000 and revenues for County Revenue Sharing at $8,460,000. When the statutorily required 5% revenue reserve is applied, sales tax revenues are $30,400,000 and revenue sharing revenues are $8,037,000. Actual statewide sales tax collections by the State for the month of March were $46.9 million below the March 11, 2008 estimate. April 2008 collection figures will not be available until mid-May 2008; however, the State Revenue Estimating Coordinator has publically stated that April 2008 collections were down again. County Revenue Sharing uses cigarette taxes (3% of total funding) and sales taxes (97% of total funding) to fund distributions to counties. A decrease in sales tax collections has a direct correlation or impact on County Revenue Sharing allocations. (" Sales tax revenue estimates used by the Office of Management and Budget, which compare sales taxes receipts on a historic month to month basis indicate that annuai receipts will approximate $30,400,000. Staff estimates for County Revenue Sharing are higher than the state estimates. Staff's recommendation is to use the more conservative state estimation as a target. l\g'2r,da !-L'3ni No. i OJ - May 27, 2003 Page 2 of 5 Ad Valorem revenue collections, for the first few months of this fiscal year, were slightly ahead of budget expectations. Collections in the past few months are below expectations. At this time staff is not recommending a budget adjustment for ad valorem revenues. The next major receipt of ad valorem taxes will occur after the tax certificates sale which takes place in May. Staff will review the ad valorem receipts after the tax certificates sale, If an adjustment is appropriate, staff will bring a recommendation to the Board. FISCAL IMPACT: The recommended reduction to budgeted revenues is $6,752,500. This represents a reduction (14.8%) to Sales Tax Revenues of $5,300,000 and a reduction (15.3%) to State Shared Revenues of $1,452,500. Reserve for Contingencies will be reduced an equal amount. GROWTH MANAGEMENT IMPACT: There is no direct impact to growth management associated with this Executive Summary. RECOMMENDA nON: That the Board of County Commissioners' approve the attached budget amendment, reducing General Fund revenues and the General Fund Reserve for Contingency by $6,752,500. PREPARED BY: John Yonkosky, Director, Office of Management and Budget. ,~.-. /- ('\ Page 1 of I ,&'aenda item ~\lo, 100 ~ May 27. 2008 Page 3 or 5 COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Item Number: Item Summary: 100 Meeting Date: Recommendation to approve a budget amendment reducing budgeted revenues in the General Fund (001) for Fiscal Year 2008 in the amount of $6,752,500 (John Yon kosky, Director, Office of Management and Budget) 5/27/2008900:00 AM Approved By John A. Yonkosky Director of the Office of Management Date County Manager's Office Office of Management & Budget 5/20/200812:57 PM Approved By James V. Mudd County Manager Date Board of County Commissioners County Manager's Office 5/2012008 4:58 PM file://C:\AQendaTest\ExDort\ I 08-Mav'Yo2027.%202008\ 1 0.%20COlJNTY%20MANAGER 5/21/2008 Item ,!'Jc. iDJ 27 20(:3 4 c.f 5 Article published May 12, 2008 Florida's budget woes could worsen next year By Bill Cotterell FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU POLITICAL EDITOR Forced to cut state spending by more than $4 billion, legislators called this the worst budget year ever. But as they assemble for the new term next fall, they may look back on their just- concluded 2008 session as the good old days. As lawmakers were passing the pared.down $66.2 billion state spending plan that kicks in July 1 and packing up to go home early this month, the House and Senate got more dismal numbers. Revenue collections for March, the most recent month with comvlete data. fell $54 million short of exvectations and the sales tax - the mainstav of the state treasury - was the bi!!!!est loser. Amv Baker, coordinator of the state Revenue Estimatin!! Conference. said the tax take for April won't be known until this week "but it's down as well. We look at what is com in!! in to accounts every dav and compare to previous vears. and make proiections from that. and it's lookin!! to be down. " House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, and budget chairman Ray Sansom, R- Destin, worked out a patchwork plan to avoid an election-year special session if the fiscal tailspin continues. If it appears that revenues won't be enough to cover the budget, lawmakers authorized Gov. Charlie Crist to seek a quick infusion of reserve funds - up to $1 billion from the Lawton Chiles Endowment. a health-care fund, plus haifthe money in the budget-stabilization fund. That's about $1.7 billion now, enough to tide the state over if the July Revenue Estimating Conference brings continued bad news. "For this year, at least for March and April, we've seen deterioration from the last estimate," Baker said. "Some of that will persist through the remainder of the year." The EDR report for March said sales tax collections were $46.9 million further below the alreadv diminished estimate made at the last !!eneral-revenue estimatin!! conference on March 11. Other revenues fluctuated. but net collections of all tax sources for the fiscal vear were $49.1 million below forecasts. "The bi!! culprit was the sales tax," said Baker. "There were Quitc a few thin!!s that were light but the bigl!:est was the sales tax. " j\gsnda It8rTi NO.1 OD rl/lay 27, 2008 Page 5 of5 And she said no turnaround is expected - by the most optimistic estimate - until well into calendar 2009, after the newly elected Legislature will have started its session. Sansom, who will succeed Rubio as speaker in November, said he hopes to use this year's pain as a learning experience. He said his two-year tenure in the top House post will be marked by a renewed interest in "zero-based budgeting," a concept in which agencies justify their spending from the first dollar up - not just explaining the growth and additions they seek. "The outlook we anticipate for the next budget year, the '09 session, is expected to look very similar to the '08 session," said Sansom. "We'll have to make more reductions in certain places and look at new ways to fund our priorities." Increasing taxes is not one of those new ways, he emphasized. Sansom said the bitter experience of the past two months sets the tone for his term as speaker. "I think we can reduce our way out of it. That's certainly the goal," he said. "We don't want to raise taxes in a time of challenges because that's not good for the economy." Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melboume, chairs the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee and is in line to be Senate president in two years. He agreed with Sansom that the T-word remains taboo. ~. "Even if we continue the shortfall,] don't think the answer is a tax increase," said Haridopolos. He plans to begin a campaign this week against a proposal put on the November ballot by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which would "swap" about a quarter of property taxes - the portion required by the state to fund schools - for a combination of increased state sales taxes, repeal of exemptions and various budget cuts. Haridopolos contends that the TBRC proposal would impose a multibillion-dollar tax hike, or massive cuts in state services, on the Legislature when he becomes Senate president. For now, he said, the past session's authorization to use up to $1.7 billion from the Chiles Endowment and the "rainy day" reserve ought to be enough to ride out the rough patch in the economy. "We got a little bit over $1 billion in our working capital fund," said Haridopolos. "Should the numbers over the next year continue to fall, we have enough to draw on in reserve so we won't need a special session." ('