FY 2015 Popular Annual Financial Report FY 2015 Popular Annual Financial Report | Page 7

Unallocated Reserve, targeted
at 3% of recurring General Fund
expenditures. It is designed to
be used for emergencies and
unanticipated expenses. The
Working Capital Reserve sets aside
one month of recurring General
Fund expenditures to provide
adequate operating cash during
normal revenue and expenditure
cycles, and is the largest reserve in
the City. The second-largest reserve
is the Landfill Lease Reserve. This
reserve, in excess of $17 million,
originated from a one-time payment
to the City when it leased its landfill
in May 2005. Our newest reserve is
the Business Continuity Reserve,
also targeted at 3% of General Fund
expenditures. This reserve is in
place to ensure that in the face of
funding shortfalls, service delivery
will continue until sound solutions to
the shortfall can be identified.

The total reserve amount
adopted in the FY16 Budget is
$47.6 million or 21.9% of the City’s
General Fund budget, net of onetime expenditures. This amount
is approximately $14.9 million in
excess of the 15% overall reserve
level specified in our Financial
Principles.

Bond Rating

Moody’s, Standard & Poors
and Fitch rate our credit-worthiness,
and they consider our reserves as
one of our strongest assets. The
rating agencies have all undergone
significant structural changes
in the methodology of assigning
their rating criteria. Moody’s and
S&P, using their new methodology,
affirmed the previous ratings for
both the General Obligation and
Water bonds In FY15, Fitch raised
the City’s General Obligation rating

to AAA while affirming the AAA for
Water bonds.

Debt

the Government Finance Officers
Association. We also received our
12th consecutive Achievement of
Excellence in Procurement Award
from the National Procurement
Institute, Inc. And in 2015, the
City achieved the State of Texas
Comptroller’s recognition for
financial transparency and was
again awarded the Leadership Circle
Certificate at the Platinum Level.

During FY15, the City took
advantage of the low cost of
borrowing and issued $32.0 million
in Permanent Improvement Bonds
and $36.8 million in Permanent
Improvement Refunding Bonds to
make various capital improvements
and capture
Sales Tax Revenues
interest savings.
FY 2000 - 2015
The City also
$60,000,000
issued $18.2 million
in Water and Sewer
$50,000,000
Revenue Bonds
$40,000,000
and $11.9 million in
Water and Sewer
$30,000,000
Revenue Refunding
$20,000,000
Bonds. During the
year, the City paid
$20,000,000
down principal of
$0
$32.0 million on our
general obligation
FY 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
and certificates of
obligation.

Awards

The City
continued
to be
recognized
for its
outstanding
reporting
efforts.
We again
received
the Certificate of Achievement for
Excellence in Financial Reporting
for our 2014 Comprehensive
Annual Financial Report (CAFR),
the Certificate for Outstanding
Achievement in Popular Annual
Financial Reporting for our 2014
PAFR, and the Distinguished Budget
Award for our 2014 budget from

Priorities
Each year, the City Council
identifies community priorities
that guide us in allocating the
City’s resources. Council met at
a strategic retreat in the spring
of 2014 and chose the following
priorities for Fiscal Year 2015:
• Champion Great
Neighborhoods
• Enhance Regional Mobility
• Invest In Our Economy
• Support Quality Education

Popular Annual Financial Report

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