At a specially convened budget workshop Monday, city council was presented with a detailed 45-page document of graphs and charts comparing general fund data for 2013-2018. Finance Director Lonnie Clark provided the data, but the illustrative graphs and charts were developed by City Hall receptionist and former data analyst Cheryl King.
The document focused solely on the city’s general fund budgets, and one obvious trend illustrated by the first chart was the city has been collecting a lesser percentage of anticipated budget by June 30 for the past two years. In 2016, it had collected 45.67 percent of the goal by June 30, but in 2017 the total at June 30 was 41.82 percent, and this year the city had collected only 39.14 percent. The graphs simply presented the data, not mitigating factors such as weather impeding tourism, which would affect tax collections.
Aldermen were intrigued about the possibilities of what subsequent versions would mean for budget planning.
Clark said the hard work of setting up and updating the charts would mean simply plugging in new numbers. He added, “This was just a test drive to see what you’ll need going forward.”
Recommendations surfaced for what would be useful in quarterly or monthly reports, and aldermen commented the end result would mean more concise reports on fewer pages each month.