Annual Comprehensive Financial Report 2021

Home

$37.9 million of the fund balance restricted for highways, streets and abandoned vehicles was due to the General Excise Tax fund that was created in fiscal year 2019, which accounts for the general excise tax surcharge that became effective in fiscal year 2019. The fund balance of the General Excise Tax Fund increased by $22.4 million due to the fact that the surcharge was in effect for 12 months at the rate of 0.50%, whereas it was only in effect at this rate for the last 6 months of the prior year. The general fund is the chief operating fund of the County. At the end of the current fiscal year, unrestricted fund balance of the general fund was $50.8 million, while total fund balance increased to $88.6 million. As a measure of the general fund's liquidity, it may be useful to compare both unrestricted fund balance and total fund balance to total fund expenditures. Unrestricted fund balance represents 11 percent of total general fund expenditures, while total fund balance represents 20 percent of that same amount. The fund balance of the County's general fund increased by $3.7 million during the current fiscal year as compared to an increase of $8.7 million in the prior year. Key factors in this decrease ($5.0 million) over last year's increase are as follows: A positive increase of $27.3 million (8 percent) in real property tax revenues and $62.9 million (90 percent) in intergovernmental revenues. As previously stated, the real property tax increase was due to a $1.8 billion increase in the assessed value of the net taxable real property, with the majority stemming from the category of taxable buildings. The residential class of property was also divided into two tiers, with Tier II revenues having a 23% increase in real property tax rates. The majority of the increase in intergovernmental revenue was due to federal grants that the County received related to the Coronavirus pandemic and the 2018 Kilauea eruption. The positive impact of the increase in revenues was offset by increases of $89.9 million (25 percent) in expenditures. $5.8 million of the total increase in expenditures is due to increases in salaries and wages and in associated employee and retiree benefits from the prior year. The County also faced the continuation of funding costs related to emergency protective measures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, with the assistance of the financial aid that was received by the federal government. The County incurred approximately $77.1 million of expenditures while responding to the additional needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These expenditures were represented just one of the many federal grants received by the County to assist in dealing with the additional financial burden resulting from the pandemic. The fund balance of the County's capital projects fund increased by $45.8 million (92 percent) during the current fiscal year. The increase is primarily due to the issuance of new bonds resulting in additional other funding source of $38.1 million and the related premiums of $15.6 million. There were also additional drawdowns of loans totaling $16.2 million. These additional funding sources of $69.9 million in fiscal year 2021 were in comparison to the other financing source of $30.3 million in the prior fiscal year related to the reclass of the bond anticipation notes (BANS) from a current liability to a long term liability. The BANs were issued in fiscal year 2019 and considered a current liability because the legal steps regarding the issuance of the bonds to pay off these notes were not completed at the time the audited financial statements were issued. Capital projects fund expenditures also decreased by $14.7 million. See discussion regarding construction activity during the current year in the capital asset section below. The debt service funds consist of the Bond Redemption Fund and the Interest Fund. These funds have combined total fund balances of $45.0 million, all of which is restricted for the payment of debt service. The net increase in the combined fund balances during the current year in the debt - 23 -