Financial Look Back at 2016
Trends
Continuing to build on the prior year’ s growth trend, Fiscal Year 2016 was a year of positive financial outcomes for the City of Arlington. Headlines about the strengthened economy, lower unemployment rate and booming housing market in Texas were hard to miss. Traditionally, the Texas economy has been stronger than the national economy, and the Dallas- Fort Worth Metroplex is stronger than the state. The same held true in 2016.
5 % growth
Sales Tax Revenue
5.5 % growth
Sales Tax Receipts Growth from 2015-2016
Sales Tax Receipts Growth from 2014-2015
Sales tax revenues, while slightly under the adopted budget for the year by $ 482,267, continued to show strong growth above the prior year’ s receipts, up 5 percent compared to 2015. This growth was only slightly less than the 5.5 percent growth seen from 2014 to 2015.
The City continued to benefit from major events held at AT & T Stadium and another strong season by the Texas Rangers, as the team compiled the best regular-season record in the American League and made the 2016 MLB play-offs. Sales tax revenues were higher than the prior year’ s monthly collections in 11 out of 12 months.
No matter where you looked in 2016, the Metroplex was growing and Arlington was no exception. Residential and commercial construction in the City continued to grow, as evidenced by license and permit activity exceeding budget by $ 1.12 million.
Activity in the City’ s Entertainment District brought strong growth in Hotel Occupancy Taxes( HOT). Our 2016 HOT receipts were 7.3 percent higher than experienced in the previous year. Court fines and forfeitures negatively impacted the budget in 2016, as citations written declined by 7 percent and ended the year $ 1 million under budget; however, these losses were mitigated by building permit and construction-related activity. The City’ s General Fund ended the year under budget in revenues and expenditures, and all funds had positive ending balances.
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Notable Accomplishments
• The City of Arlington and the Texas Rangers announced plans for Texas Live!, a 100,000-square-foot entertainment complex, along with plans for a 300-room upscale hotel with 35,000 square feet of convention space near Globe Life Park. Texas Live! will feature multiple best-in-class restaurants, retail and entertainment venues, plus a signature event space. The facility will also create approximately 1,800 total jobs.
• TexasLive! represents the next chapter in a partnership with the Texas Rangers already spanning more than four decades. In November, voters further solidified that partnership by approving a measure to contribute up to $ 500 million toward the cost of a new retractable-roof ballpark and surrounding development for the team.
• In downtown, work began on 101 Center, a mixed-use project including high-end residential units over groundlevel retail with restaurants and loft office space. The $ 49-million development is a partnership between the City and a private development group. A new piece of public art was also unveiled. The Downtown Arlington Management Corporation, Arlington Tomorrow Foundation and private donors underwrote the cost of the DREAM sculpture at 200 West Abram Street. Five letters – each measuring 12 feet tall, 4 feet deep and up to 10 feet wide – made of heavy sheetmetal steel form the word“ dream.”
• This fall, City Council authorized the acceptance of a $ 75,000 grant from the U. S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services for the development of a Smartphone app for officers and residents. The Police Department proposed the officer app for internal use as well as a public app for a mobile platform to complement the department’ s web page redesign. The apps will increase the department’ s capacity to keep officers informed of critical topics while on patrol and help reach citizens on a new technology platform.
• In 2016, Money Magazine recognized the City as the Best Big City in the South and one of the Top 6 Best Big Cities in the entire country. The article lists Arlington’ s numerous large employers, including GM and Texas Health Resources, as well as the City’ s proximity to highpaying job opportunities. Arlington, with a population now topping 380,000, is also“ a sweet spot for parents looking for affordable homes and top-ranked schools.” This includes the standout public charter school Uplift Summit International Preparatory, named one of the top 20 most challenging high schools in the U. S. by the Washington
Post.
6 | Popular Annual Financial Report