2015-COH - Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

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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 $44.0 million, while total fund balance decreased to $52.2 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 17 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 decreased by $3.4 million during the current fiscal year as compared to an increase of $1.6 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 $12.7 million (6 percent) in real property tax revenues and $1.4 million (3 percent) increase in combined Federal and State intergovernmental revenues. As explained previously, the increase in real property tax revenues is due to a slight increase in the value of net taxable real property as evidenced in the accompanying statistical tables. • The positive impact of the increase in revenues was offset by increases of $18.6 million (8 percent) in expenditures. $11.3 million of the total increase in expenditures is due to increases in salaries and wages from the prior year and $5.6 million in associated employee benefits. The fund balance of the County's capital projects fund decreased by $46.6 million (53 percent) during the current fiscal year. The decrease is primarily due to the recognition of $35.0 million in bond anticipation notes (BANs) that were issued in the current year to fund 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. The debt service funds consist of the Bond Redemption Fund and the Interest Fund. These funds have combined total fund balances of $24.0 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 service funds was $0.4 million (2 percent). 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 $674,507, and $365,709 for the Ouli Ekahi Affordable Housing Project (Ouli Ekahi). The total net position for Kulaimano decreased by $57,728 and the net position for Ouli Ekahi increased by $64,160. 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 an $8.6 million increase in appropriations, the most significant single reason (65 percent) due to an increase in the appropriations for capital outlays. Differences between the final budget and the actual (budgetary basis) resulted in approximately $2.9 million less revenues than expected and $26.4 million less expenditures than appropriated. -21 -