Financial Analysis of the Government’s Funds As noted earlier, Sarasota County uses fund accounting to ensure and demonstrate compliance with finance- related legal requirements. Governmental Funds. The focus of Sarasota County’s governmental funds is to provide information on near- term inflows, outflows and balances of spendable resources. Such information is useful in assessing Sarasota County’s financing requirements. In particular, unassigned fund balance may serve as a useful measure of a government’s net resources available for spending at the end of the fiscal year. At the end of the current fiscal year, Sarasota County’s governmental funds reported combined ending fund balances of $648.4 million, an increase of $63.2 million compared to the prior year. Approximately 4.3 percent of this total amount, or $27.9 million, constitutes unassigned fund balance, which is available for spending at the County’s discretion. Further information regarding unassigned fund balance can be found in the governmental funds financial statements starting on page 48. The remainder of fund balance is restricted, committed, assigned or non-spendable. These amounts totaled $620.5 million or 95.7 percent of ending fund balance. Of this amount, $442.5 million is restricted by law or externally imposed requirements, $152.4 million is committed for specific purposes by the Board of County Commissioners and $23.4 million is assigned for various purposes by the County Administrator. The General Fund is the chief operating fund of Sarasota County. The General Fund represents 48.5 percent of the total governmental revenues. At the end of the current fiscal year, unassigned fund balance of the General Fund was $34.3 million, while the total fund balance was $117.8 million. As a measure of the General Fund’s liquidity, it may be useful to compare both unassigned fund balance and total fund balance to total fund expenditures. Unassigned fund balance represents 11.8 percent of the total annual General Fund expenditures, and total fund balance represents 40.4 percent. The fund balance of Sarasota County’s General Fund decreased by $12.7 million during the current fiscal year. Key factors in the change in fund balance are as follows: Public safety expenditures increased by $14.5 million due to increase in payroll and operating expenditures. General government expenditures increased by $5.8 million due to increase in lease and rental expenditures. Miscellaneous Operating Revenue increase by $24.6 million due to sale of administrative building. Investment earnings revenue decreased by $13.2 million due to market changes in the current year compared to the prior year. Additional information regarding the General Fund budget to actual variances can be found on pages 56-57. The Emergency Services Special Revenue Fund has a total fund balance of $20.5 million, an increase of $3.0 million over the prior fiscal year. This fund balance must be used for fire and ambulance emergency services. The County utilizes a non-ad valorem Fire Assessment for the purposes of funding fire services. The special assessment service charge collected increased by 4.5 percent which is consistent with the County’s growth and development. Expenditures increased $4.9 million over the prior fiscal year primarily due to an increase in personnel services. The Capital Revenue Programs Special Revenue Fund has a total fund balance of $91.8 million, an increase of $8.1 million over the prior fiscal year. This fund balance must be used to construct infrastructure within the County. The fund received $58.0 million from the local infrastructure one-cent sales tax and $32.5 million from impact and mobility fees to fund the County’s infrastructure needs. The total transfer to fund capital projects was $53.0 million to fund roadway resurfacing projects, park improvements, and the County’s sidewalk program. During fiscal year 2022, $24.7 million was transferred to pay debt service. 37
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