The Valley Chronicle - Hemet council approves mid-year budgetng

Budget adjustments reflect unforeseen revenue and expenditure changes

■ By Tom Jones / Contributed The Hemet City Council unanimously approved mid-year adjustments to the Fiscal Year 2018-19 budget at a city council meeting held on Tuesday, Feb 26. These adjustments will reflect changes in revenue and expenditures that were unforeseen at the time that the original budget was adopted in June 2018. On the revenue side of the adjustments, taxes on unsecured property have already exceeded the amount in the original budget and property taxes earmarked for the Redevelopment Property Tax Trust Fund increment came in higher than expected. The total mid-year revenue adjustments amounted to $175,000. Expenditure adjustments included $21,375 for the continuing update of the city website, a project that seems to be taking longer than expected. The additional project timeline also called for the expenditure of $32,000 for extending software licensing and hardware warranty for existing blade server and storage systems. The largest adjustment, not unforeseen, was the additional cost for the memorandum of understanding agreement between the City of Hemet and Police and Fire bargaining units entitling all sworn employees to a two percent increase effective July 1, 2018 based on sales tax growth. The cost for the raises for police officers and firefighters is born by both the general fund and Measure U funds with the mid-year adjustment totalling $234,700 for police and $137,300 for fire.