City of Hoover expects $13 million surplus for 2016 after record revenues

The city of Hoover likely has a surplus of more than $13 million for fiscal 2016 after a record year of revenues, Chief Financial Officer Melinda Lopez said tonight.

The city’s financial records have not yet been audited, but it appears that general fund revenues for fiscal 2016, which ended Sept. 30, turned out to be a record $111.4 million, Lopez said. That compares to $109.9 million in fiscal 2015, she said.

And the city spent only about $98 million from its general fund in fiscal 2016.

The Hoover City Council tonight voted to transfer all of the excess funds, except $100,000, to the city’s capital projects fund.

City Administrator Allan Rice said new Mayor Frank Brocato is analyzing capital needs throughout the city to determine how the excess money should be used. He noted that one of Brocato’s priorities is to provide additional funding to the Hoover school system as well.

Rice noted the mayor also is committed to maintaining an adequate reserve fund for the city to help protect its AAA credit rating.

Brocato is still developing his 2017 budget recommendation for the City Council, and public budget hearings likely will be held in January, he said. In the meantime, the city continues to operate off its 2016 budget.

Overall tax revenues coming into the general fund rose $3.4 million in fiscal 2016, from $91.9 million to $95.3 million, according to unaudited numbers provided by Lopez. The city collected a record $71.5 million in sales and use tax revenues in 2016, up $2.9 million from the $68.6 million collected in 2015, Lopez said.

Outside of the general fund, the city maintains a separate account to provide its own health insurance. The city’s health insurance costs rose 22 percent in 2016, according to figures provided by Lopez. That was a $1.7 million increase from $7.86 million in 2015 to $9.58 million in 2016, Lopez said.

Because health insurance costs can be difficult to project, the costs were $2.5 million more than had been budgeted, Lopez said. The Hoover City Council tonight amended its budget to allocate more money to cover the actual expenses.

One reason for the increase is due to an increase in the number of city employees, Lopez said. The original 2016 budget included money for eight new full-time employees and 12 new part-time positions, and then in March the city council approved hiring 10 new police officers.

The original new full-time positions added included three public safety telecommunicators, two building inspectors, an electrician, a revenue auditor and an administrative assistant. New part-time jobs included five firefighters, two reserve police officers, a detention officer, a police records specialist, a library assistant, a library page and two seasonal crew workers.

Some of those new jobs were positions that the city eliminated through attrition in previous years during tougher economic times, former Finance Director Robert Yeager said at the time.