Annual Cash Budget Results for 2016
The City of St. John's cash report for 2016 is complete and shows a surplus of $12,098,697 or 4.9% of the gross 2016 budget. The detailed variances on revenues and expenditures will be presented to council on Monday.
“A contributing factor to this surplus is the program review process that began in January 2016, with a goal of achieving saving in the 2017 budget year,” said Mayor Dennis O’Keefe. “Some of the changes that occurred during the review took effect immediately and many of these savings were realized in 2016. The city has taken the program review process seriously and has made significant progress in reducing expenses.”
The cash statement shows that revenue for 2016 is under budget by 0.4% of the total budget, or $1.3 million. The most notable variance is on the expenditure side, which is 4.4% less than budgeted, or $13.4 million. The expenditure variances are comprised of all City programs, approximately 200 in total.
The most significant expenditure savings occurred in the Water and Waste Water Division, which recorded a favorable variance of 14.5%, or $6 million in 2016. Savings were also found under General Administrative at 10.69% or $2.9 million, as well as under Transportation Services at 5.1%, or $2.6 million. Sick and severance obligations recorded an unfavorable variance of $3.2* million as the result of staff FTE (Full Time Equivalent) reductions implemented during 2016 program review process.
“The net result for 2016 is a cash surplus of $12.1 million, which is comparable to the program review savings which are forecasted to be $13.3 million for 2017,” said Mayor O’Keefe.
The surplus for the year will become part of general funds of the city, to be appropriated for a purpose within the jurisdiction of council in subsequent years. The 2016 Cash Report is available here.
Media Contact:
Kelly Maguire
Media Relations
City of St. John's
709-576-8491
kmaguire@stjohns.ca
* The origianl version of this media release had an error in that sick and severance obligations recorded an unfavorable variance of $3.9 million. This has been corrected to show $3.2 million.