City staff is recommending $4.6 million in budget surpluses from 2016 be placed in reserve funds.
A staff report heading to Guelph City Council's Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday says the city had a tax-supported positive variance of $3.1 million in 2016, its highest in years.
There was also a positive budget variance of $1.5 million in the non-tax supported areas of water, wastewater and court services.
The report from staff recommends the surpluses be put away for a rainy day - "to smooth future volatility in operating costs and tax increases" - by allocating the money to city reserve funds, mostly in the tax rate stabilization reserve, as is the standard practice.
The city report says most of the budget positive variance comes from a one-time supplementary tax revenue surplus of $2.3 million brought about by bringing new tax assessments online.
The city also had a $2 million surplus in what it budgeted for its portion of county services such as social housing, child care and Ontario Works.
That's five straight years the city has had a similar positive variance in it's county costs and the report says that the 2017 budget was adjusted to give a more actual representation of the city's portion.
Negative budget variances in 2016 include:
- $1.6 million in the Solid Waste department (in part due to an uninsured fire)
- $1 million in Tourism (mainly due to a renegotiated Guelph Storm lease agreement and lower than planned food and beverage sales)
- $230,000 in Transit (due to mid-year implementation of summer helper buses)
- higher than anticipated (11 per cent) hydro costs.
"The city has embarked on a journey to correct and right size its operating budgets so that they reflect historical actual trending and are supported by business drivers," says the report.
"The approved 2017 budget right sized some of the perennial budget variances and a concerted effort will be made to further right size the identified budget variance drivers going forward."
City departments were $1.9 million over budget but revenues and savings were $2.7 million more than expected.
The year-end numbers have yet to be finalized through external audit.
