Reserves
In accordance with the City ’ s Financial Principles , several cash reserves are maintained in order to mitigate the impact of a significant economic downturn on our ability to maintain service levels to our citizens . These reserves are an important consideration by bond rating agencies in determining the City ’ s overall creditworthiness . The major reserves include the Unallocated Reserve , targeted at 3 percent 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 . The 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 , originally targeted at 3 percent 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 FY 2016 Budget was $ 49.1 million or 21.3 percent of the City ’ s General Fund budget , net of one-time expenditures . This amount is approximately $ 14.5 million in excess of the 15 percent overall reserve level specified in our Financial Principles .
Bond Rating
Moody ’ s , Standard & Poors , and Fitch rate the City ’ s credit-worthiness , and the firms consider the City ’ s reserves as one of our strongest assets . The rating agencies have all undergone significant structural changes in the methodology of assigning rating
$ 60,000,000 $ 50,000,000 $ 40,000,000 $ 30,000,000 $ 20,000,000 $ 20,000,000
Sales Tax Revenues FY 2000 - 2016
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criteria . All three agencies , using new methodology , affirmed the ratings for both the General Obligation and Water bonds .
These strong ratings allow us to issue municipal debt vital to infrastructure at a very low cost to the City .
Debt
During 2016 , the City took advantage of the cost of borrowing and issued $ 34.4 million in Permanent Improvement Bonds , $ 30.1 million in Certificates of Obligation , and $ 47.4 million in Permanent Improvement Refunding Bonds to make various capital improvements and capture interest savings . The City also issued $ 41.3 million in Water and Sewer Revenue Bonds for the purpose of improving and expanding existing water and wastewater infrastructure . During the year , the City paid down principal of $ 32 million on our General Obligation and Certificates of Obligation .
Awards
The City continued to be recognized for its outstanding financial reporting efforts . We again received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for our 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report ( CAFR ), the Certificate for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting for our 2015 PAFR , and the Distinguished Budget Award for our 2016 budget from the Government Finance Officers Association . We also received our 13 th consecutive Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award from the National Procurement Institute , Inc . And in 2016 , the City successfully achieved a Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Transparency Star for Traditional Finance and Economic Development , recognizing local governments for going above and beyond in transparency efforts .
Priorities
Each year , the City Council identifies strategic priorities that guide the allocation of the City ’ s resources . Council met at a strategic retreat in 2015 and chose the following priorities for 2016 :
• Put Technology to Work
• Champion Great Neighborhoods
• Enhance Regional Mobility
• Invest in Our Economy
• Support Quality Education
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