Fort Walton Beach — Fiscal Year 2024-25 Adopted Budget — reading text

balance of authorized and unissued bonds may not be used for other purposes, but must be rescinded by the community's legislative body to be removed from community's books. Bond Issue: Generally, the sale of a certain number of bonds at one time by a governmental unit. City of Fort Walton Beach | Budget Book 2025 Page 358  Bond Rating (Municipal): A credit rating assigned to a municipality to help investors assess the future ability, legal obligation, and willingness of the municipality (bond issuer) to make timely debt service payments. Stated otherwise, a rating helps prospective investors determine the level of risk associated with a given fixed-income investment. Rating agencies, such as Moody's and Standard and Poors, use rating systems, which designate a letter or a combination of letters and numerals where AAA is the highest rating and C1 is a very low rating. Budget: A plan for allocating resources to support particular services, purposes and functions over a specified period of time. (See Performance Budget, Program Budget) Capital Assets: All real and tangible property used in the operation of government, which is not easily converted into cash, and has an initial useful live extending beyond a single financial reporting period. Capital assets include land and land improvements; infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water and sewer lines; easements; buildings and building improvements; vehicles, machinery and equipment. Communities typically define capital assets in terms of a minimum useful life and a minimum initial cost. (See Fixed Assets) Capital Budget: An appropriation or spending plan that uses borrowing or direct outlay for capital or fixed asset improvements. Among other information, a capital budget should identify the method of financing each recommended expenditure, i.e., tax levy or rates, and identify those items that were not recommended. (See Capital Assets, Fixed Assets) Cash: Currency, coin, checks, postal and express money orders and bankers’ drafts on hand or on deposit with an official or agent designated as custodian of cash and bank deposits. Cash Management: The process of monitoring the ebb and flow of money in an out of municipal accounts to ensure cash availability to pay bills and to facilitate decisions on the need for short- term borrowing and investment of idle cash. Certificate of Deposit (CD): A bank deposit evidenced by a negotiable or non-negotiable instrument, which provides on its face that the amount of such deposit plus a specified interest payable to a bearer or to any specified person on a certain specified date, at the expiration of a certain specified time, or upon notice in writing. Classification of Real Property: Assessors are required to classify all real property according to use into one of four classes: residential, open space, commercial, and industrial. Having classified its real properties, local officials are permitted to determine locally, within limitations established by statute and the Commissioner of Revenue, what percentage of the tax burden is to be borne by each class of real property and by personal property owners. Collective Bargaining: The process of negotiating workers' wages, hours, benefits, working conditions, etc., between an employer and some or all of its employees, who are represented by a recognized labor union. regarding wages, hours and working conditions. Consumer Price Index: The statistical measure of changes, if any, in the overall price level of consumer goods and services. The index is often called the "cost-of-living index." Cost-Benefit Analysis: A decision-making tool that allows a comparison of options based on the level of benefit derived and the cost to achieve the benefit from different alternatives. Debt Burden: The amount of debt carried by an issuer usually expressed as a measure of value (i.e., debt as a percentage of assessed value, debt per capita, etc.). Sometimes debt burden refers to debt service costs as a percentage of the total annual budget. Debt Service: The repayment cost, usually stated in annual terms and based on an amortization schedule, of the principal and interest on any particular bond issue. Encumbrance: A reservation of funds to cover obligations arising from purchase orders, contracts, or salary commitments that are chargeable to, but not yet paid from, a specific appropriation account. Enterprise Funds: An enterprise fund is a separate accounting and financial reporting mechanism for municipal services for which a fee is charged in exchange for goods or services. It allows a community to demonstrate to the public the portion of total costs of a service that is recovered through user charges and the portion that is subsidized by the tax levy, if any. With an enterprise fund, all costs of service delivery--direct, indirect, and capital costs—are identified. This allows the community to recover total service costs through user fees if it chooses. Enterprise accounting also enables communities to reserve the City of Fort Walton Beach | Budget Book 2025 Page 359  "surplus" or net assets unrestricted generated by the operation of the enterprise rather than closing it out to the general fund at year-end. Services that may be treated as enterprises include, but are not limited to, water, sewer, hospital, and airport services. Equalized Valuations (EQVs): The determination of the full and fair cash value of all property in the community that is subject to local taxation. Estimated Receipts: A term that typically refers to anticipated local revenues often based on the previous year's receipts and represent funding sources necessary to support a community's annual budget. (See Local Receipts) Exemptions: A discharge, established by statute, from the obligation to pay all or a portion of a property tax. The exemption is available to particular categories of property or persons upon the timely submission and approval of an application to the assessors. Properties exempt from taxation include hospitals, schools, houses of worship, and cultural institutions. Persons who may qualify for exemptions include disabled veterans, blind individuals, surviving spouses, and seniors. Expenditure: An outlay of money made by municipalities to provide the programs and services within their approved budget. Fiduciary Funds: Repository of money held by a municipality in a trustee capacity or as an agent for individuals, private organizations, other governmental units, and other funds. These include pension (and other employee benefit) trust funds, investment trust funds, private- purpose trust funds, and agency funds. Fixed Assets: Long-lived, assets such as buildings, equipment and land obtained or controlled as a result of past transactions or circumstances. Fixed Costs: Costs that are legally or contractually mandated such as retirement, FICA/Social Security, insurance, debt service costs or interest on loans. Float: The difference between the bank balance for a local government’s account and its book balance at the end of the day. The primary factor creating float is clearing time on checks and deposits. Delays in receiving deposit and withdrawal information also influence float. Full Faith and Credit: A pledge of the general taxing powers for the payment of governmental obligations. Bonds carrying such pledges are usually referred to as general obligation or full faith and credit bonds. Fund: An accounting entity with a self-balancing set of accounts that are segregated for the purpose of carrying on identified activities or attaining certain objectives in accordance with specific regulations, restrictions, or limitations. Fund Accounting: Organizing financial records into multiple, segregated locations for money. A fund is a distinct entity within the municipal government in which financial resources and activity (assets, liabilities, fund balances, revenues, and expenditures) are accounted for independently in accordance with specific regulations, restrictions or limitations. Examples of funds include the general fund and enterprise funds. Communities whose accounting records are organized according to the Uniform Municipal Accounting System (UMAS) use multiple funds. GASB 34: A major pronouncement of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board that establishes new criteria on the form and content of governmental financial statements. GASB 34 requires a report on overall financial health, not just on individual funds. It requires more complete information on the cost of delivering value estimates on public infrastructure assets, such as bridges, road, sewers, etc. It also requires the presentation of a narrative statement the government's financial performance, trends and prospects for the future. GASB 45: This is another Governmental Accounting Standards Board major pronouncement that each public entity account for and report other postemployment benefits in its accounting statements. Through actuarial analysis, municipalities must identify the true costs of the OPEB earned by employees over their estimated years of actual service. General Fund: The fund used to account for most financial resources and activities governed by the normal appropriation process. General Obligation Bonds: Bonds issued by a municipality for purposes allowed by statute that are backed by the full faith and credit of its taxing authority. Governing Body: A board, committee, commission, or other executive or policymaking bodyof a municipality or school district. City of Fort Walton Beach | Budget Book 2025 Page 360  Indirect Cost: Costs of a service not reflected in the operating budget of the entity providing the service. An example of an indirect cost of providing water service would be the value of time spent by non-water department employees processing water bills. A determination of these costs is necessary to analyze the total cost of service delivery. The matter of indirect costs arises most often in the context of enterprise funds. Interest: Compensation paid or to be paid for the use of money, including amounts payable at periodic intervals or discounted at the time a loan is made. In the case of municipal bonds, interest payments accrue on a day-to-day basis, but are paid every six months. Interest Rate: The interest payable, expressed as a percentage of the principal available for use during a specified period of time. It is always expressed in annual terms. Investments: Securities and real estate held for the production of income in the form of interest, dividends, rentals or lease payments. The term does not include fixed assets used in governmental operations. Line Item Budget: A budget that separates spending into categories, or greater detail, such as supplies, equipment, maintenance, or salaries, as opposed to a program budget. Local Aid: Revenue allocated by the state or counties to municipalities and school districts. Maturity Date: The date that the principal of a bond becomes due and payable in full. Municipal(s): (As used in the bond trade) "Municipal" refers to any state or subordinate governmental unit. "Municipals" (i.e., municipal bonds) include not only the bonds of all political subdivisions, such as cities, towns, school districts, special districts, counties but also bonds of the state and agencies of the state. Note: A short-term loan, typically with a maturity date of a year or less. Objects of Expenditures: A classification of expenditures that is used for coding any department disbursement, such as “personal services,” “expenses,” or “capital outlay.” Official