2019-COH - Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

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The positive impact of the increase in revenues was offset by increases of $15.8 million (5 percent) in expenditures. $5.6 million of the total increase in expenditures is due to increases in salaries and wages from the prior year and $11.5 million in associated employee and retiree benefits. The County also faced (lie continuation of the natural disaster relating to the lava eruption and incurred expenditures for emergency protective measures and recovery related to a hurricane. The fund balance of the County's capital projects fund decreased by $19.1 million (25 percent) during the current fiscal year. The decrease is primarily due to the recognition of $30.0 million in bond anticipation notes (BANS) that were issued in the current year to fiend expenditures incurred during the fiscal year as a current liability instead of another financing source because the legal steps regarding the issuance of the bonds to pay off these notes have not been completed at the time the audited financial statements are being issued. This was partially offset by the issuance of $7.4 million in SRF loans and $4.1 million in transfers from the newly created General Excise Tax Fund. The debt service funds consist of the Bond Redemption Fund and the Interest Fund. These funds have combined total fund balances of $33.2 million, all of which is restricted for the payment of debt service. The net decrease in the combined fund balances during the current year in the debt service funds was just $0.2 million, which was less than a l% change from the prior year. Proprietary funds. The County's proprietary funds provide the same type of information found in the government -wide financial statements, but in more detail. Unrestricted net position of the Kulaimano Elderly Housing Project (Kulaimano) at the end of the year amounted to $638,675, and $578,526 for the Ouli Ekahi Affordable Housing Project (OU Ii Ekahi), The total net position for Kulaimano increased by $82,117 and the net position for Ouli Ekahi increased by $88,831. Other factors concerning the finances of these two funds have already been addressed in the discussion of the County's business -type activities. GENERAL FUND BUDGETARY HIGHLIGHTS Differences between the original budget and the final amended budget were primarily the result of a $55.2 million increase in appropriations, the most significant reasons were due to $42.0 million in increases in the grant appropriations from the State relating to the response and recovery efforts for the lava disaster. Differences between the final budget and the actual (budgetary basis) resulted in approximately $5.7 million less revenues than expected and $27.8 million less expenditures than appropriated. This is primarily due to the following factors: ■ The negative variance of $5.7 million in revenues is comprised mostly of $5.5 million from intergovernmental revenues, of which $2.2 million was unrecognized in the General Fund of the State's grant relating to the lava recovery efforts and was instead recognized in tine respective funds that incurred the actual costs. $6.9 million of the unspent appropriations is related to salaries and wages and the various countywide expenditure accounts relating to salaries and wages. The variance is due primarily to unfilled vacancies and continued efforts by each department to control payroll costs during the budget year due to the tough economic conditions facing the County. Tile following functions are responsible for the majority of the variance: public safety ($3.3 million) and general government ($2.6 million). -23 -