Finance director: Dixon city revenues coming in strong

DIXON — With the city over two-thirds of the way through its budget year, the Dixon City Council at its most recent meeting was given an update on how the spending plan is rolling out over the current fiscal year.

“Our budget ... we’re looking really good with our expenditure side, staying in line with where we’re at,” city Finance Director Becky Fredericks said at the council’s Jan. 16 meeting. “Many budgets are below as of Dec. 31.”

She said the council would soon be fielding budget resolutions for council action, but that is because of the need to move money around, not adding expenses to it.

Sales tax is always something everyone is interested in, she said as she explained that sales tax revenue has increased over the prior year.

“From Dec. 31, 2022, to Dec. 31, 2023, [in] sales tax, we’ve seen a 4.86% increase,” she said, adding that the half-percent sales tax, which helps pay for infrastructure, has increased 5.46%.

According to a year-to-date financial statement, sales tax revenues as of Dec. 31, 2023, were about $3.1 million, compared to nearly $3 million as of Dec. 31, 2022.

As expected, she said, there has been a decrease in revenue from the personal property replacement tax. The city has received about a half-million less in revenue, but the city had been told to prepare for it and did, she said.

“We’re still going to go over what we budgeted for that revenue,” she said of the PPRT.

The city has received all property tax revenue, she said.

“So, financially, we are doing well,” she said.

The council soon will begin budget sessions for the next fiscal budget.

Councilman Mike Venier, on behalf of the Dixon Historic Theatre Board, said the council soon would hear a State of the Theater address.

“There’s a lot of exciting possibilities in the future that we’ll be looking to share with the council,” Venier said. “As one of your appointed board members, I will say, that we as a council need to start giving some strong consideration to additional financial support.”

In other action, the council approved:

• A resolution amending the cemetery’s 2023-2024 budget that will allow moving $5,225 from the part-time wages line item to two other funds – $225 into professional development and $5,000 into the overtime line item.
• A resolution amending the police department’s 2023-2024 budget by moving $48,000 into the overtime line item and taking $18,000 from part-time wages line item and $30,000 from the full-time salary line item. Dixon Police Chief Steve Howell said the shift is needed to cover additional costs associated with three deployments, injuries, a childbirth, training and personal time off that affected staffing.
• A resolution authorizing office hours at city of Dixon buildings for federal legislators for the limited purpose of providing constituent services
• A bid for $84,647 from TSR Concrete Coatings for the public safety building flooring project.
• Changing the name of the COVID Relief Fund to the Community Development Fund.
• Making an additional payment to the police and fire pension funds to maintain a 100% funding level. The police pension additional amount is $381,470, while the fire pension additional amount is $272,309, according to city documents. This payment is in addition to pension bond payments.