HomeMy WebLinkAboutx - APPENDIX C
2004 Final Budaet
Appendix
APPENDIX C
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
This glossary identifies terms used in this budget. Accounting terms are defined in general, non-
technical terms. For more precise definitions of these terms, the reader should refer to the State BARS
manual.
Account: A record of additions, deletions, and balances of individual assets, liabilities, equity,
revenues and expenses.
Accrual Basis: Refers to the accounting of revenues and expenditures on the basis of when they
are incurred or committed, rather than when they are made or received. All funds except
the governmental funds are accounted on this basis and the governmental funds are
accounted on a modified accrual basis.
Administrative or Support Departments: Refers to organizational units or departments which primarily
provide services to other departments or divisions. These departments include:
Mayor and Council: Provides overall administration to the entire City. Also includes
expenses related to the operation of the Council.
Human Resources: Provides centralized personnel services to all City services. Also
includes Civil Service which applies to Police and Fire Services.
Finance: Provides centralized financial services to all City departments. Also provides
a variety of other central administrative service including printing, data processing, and
billing of City utilities.
City Attomey: Provides centralized legal services to all City services.
Appropriation: Legal authorization granted by ordinance of the City Council that approves
budgets for individual funds.
Arbitrage: The interest revenue earned in excess of interest costs from the investment of proceeds
from the sale of bonds. Federal law requires that earnings over a certain rate be repaid to
the federal government and is called arbitrage rebate.
Assessed Valuation: A valuation set upon real estate or other property by a government (King County
T ax Assessor) as a basis for levying taxes.
Balanced Budget: Budget in which expenditures and other financing sources do not exceed
budgeted appropriations at the fund level.
BARS:
Budgeting, Accounting & Reporting System. Refers to the accounting rules established by
the State Auditor's Office.
Baseline Budget: The baseline budget consists of budget proposals which would be sufficient to
maintain the operation of programs which had been previously, in earlier budgets,
authorized.
Bond:
A written promise to pay a specified sum of money, called the face value or principal
amount, at a specified date or dates in the future, called the maturity daters), together
with periodic interest at a specified rate. The difference between a note and a bond is
that the latter runs for a longer period of time and requires greater legal formality.
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Budget Adjustment: The method used to make revisions to the adopted budget. Adjustments are
made via an ordinance approved by the city council.
Capital Assets: Tangible assets that have an estimated useful life of three or more years and an
acquisition cost that equals or exceeds the City of Auburn threshold. Examples of capital
assets include property, buildings, land improvements, equipment and vehicles. Capital
assets are also called fixed assets.
Capital Facilities Plan (CFP): A plan that studies the manner in which the capital needs of the City
can be met and establishes policies and management programs to address those needs.
A published six-year plan document is one element of the comprehensive plan required by
Washington's Growth Management Act. Capital facilities generally have long useful lives,
significant costs and tend not to be mobile.
Captial Outlay: Expenditures that result in the acquisition of, or addition to, capital assets.
Capital Project Construction Funds (Series 300 Funds): A type of fund which accounts for major
general government construction projects financed by long-term general obligations.
These funds correspond to the Debt Service Funds in the 200 series.
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG): A grant received annually by the City from the
Department of Housing and Urban Development. While included in the budget for
accounting purposes, specific allocation of these funds occurs in a separate process.
Comprehensive Plan: A long-range policy adopted by the City to guide decisions affecting the
community's physical development.
Councilmanic Bonds:
General Obligation bonds authorized by the City Council.
Current Expense Fund:
See General Fund.
Debt Service:
Interest and principal payments on debt.
Debt Service Funds (Series 200 Funds): A type of fund which accounts for the payment of
outstanding long-term general obligations of the City.
Department: Refers to an organizational unit. In Auburn, it refers to eight such units: Mayor &
Council, Human Resources Department, Finance Department, Legal Department (or City
Attorney), Planning and Community Development, Police Department, Fire Department,
Public Works Department, and Parks and Recreation Department (see administrative and
line departments for descriptions). May be composed of one or more organizational units
referred to as Divisions. (This term may also be found to include Divisions which previously
were Departments although now should be divisions. There are two such units which are
budgeted as though they were departments; the Library and Street Departments).
Department Head: One of the eight directors of a department.
Depreciation: (1) Expiration in the service life of capital assets. (2) The portion of the cost of a
capital asset that is charged as an expense during a particular period.
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Division: Refers to an organizational unit below that of Department. All of the proprietary funds are
administered as a Division, although sometimes referred to as Departments because of
their status as such in a previous administration.
EIS: Environmental Impact Study
Enterprise Funds (Series 400 Funds): A type of proprietary fund which contains activities which
are operated in a manner similar to private businesses. In Auburn, the Enterprise Funds
account for the City's utilities, the Cemetery, the Golf Course, and the Airport.
ESA: The Endangered Species Act provides for the designation and protection of invertebrates,
wildlife, fish and plant species that are in danger of becoming extinct and mandate
conservation of the ecosystems in which endangered species depend.
Expenditures: The cost of goods or services that use current assets. When accounts are kept on the
accrual or modified accrual basis, expenditures are recognized at the time the goods are
delivered or services rendered.
Full- Time Equivalent Position (FTE): Refers to budgeted employee positions based on the number of
hours for each position. A full-time position is 1.00 FTE and equals 2080 hours per year and a
.50 position is 1040 hours.
Fund:
A self-balancing group of accounts which includes both revenues and expenditures.
Fund Balance: The difference between assets and liabilities reported in a governmental
fund. Fund balances are either designated or undesignated.
Desiqnated: Funds that have been dedicated to a particular purpose.
Undesiqnated: The remaining unappropriated balance of the fund after accounting for
the designated funds.
Fiduciary Funds: A group of funds which accounts for funds held by the City as a trustee.
GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are standards used for accounting and reporting
for both private industry and governments.
General Fund (Fund 001): A specific fund which accounts tax supported activities of the City and
other types of activities not elsewhere accounted. In the City budget, this fund is divided
into departments. Sometimes it may be referred to as the Current Expense Fund. The
General Fund is a Governmental Fund.
General Obligations (Debt): Refers to a type of debt which is secured by means of the tax base
of the City or obligations against which the full faith and credit of the City was pledged.
Includes debt incurred by three different circumstances: 1) Debt incurred by the vote of
the people and retired by means of a separate property tax levy, 2) debt approved by the
City Council to be retired out of the proceeds of the regular levy (referred to as either
councilmanic bonds or an inside levy), and 3) debt, which while secured by taxing
authority, is retired by means of other revenue.
GMA:
Growth Management Act
Goal:
The objective or aim toward which an endeavor is directed.
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Governmental Fund Types: A group of funds which account the activities of the City which are of a
governmental character, as distinguished from activities which are of a business character.
Indirect Charges or Cost Allocation: Refers to the process of accounting costs between funds.
Usually applied to determining the costs of administrative services provided to Non-
General Fund divisions.
Inside Levy: The dedication of a portion of the regular property tax levy to retire councilmanic
bonds.
Interfund Payments: Expenditures made to other funds for services rendered.
Internal Service Funds (Series 500 Funds): A type of proprietary fund which accounts the goods and
services which are provided as internal services of the City; includes the equipment rental
system and insurance reserves.
LED:
Light Emitting Diode (street signals)
LEOFF:
Washington's Law Enforcement Officers' and Fire Fighters' Retirement System.
Line Departments: Line departments are those that provide services directly to the public and consists
of the following departments:
Planning and Community Development: Includes several divisions and a special activity;
Planning, Airport, Building, and Community Development Block Grant.
Police: Provides all Police Services, including the jail.
Fire: Provides all Fire, emergency medical and hazardous material services of the City.
Public Works: Consists of several divisions or services, including engineering, all utilities,
equipment rental and streets.
Parks: Provides recreational services and maintains park facilities. Includes senior services
and the management of the cemetery and golf course.
Local Improvement Districts (LIDs): A legal mechanism that finances specific capital
improvements that benefit specific properties. Places a special assessment against the
benefited property to repay debt incurred to finance the improvements.
METRO (Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle): Conveyance, treatment and disposal of all sanitary
sewage collected within the Auburn sanitary sewer service area is provided by King
County based on a contract signed in 1974 with Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle. The
County and Metro consolidated effective January 1, 1994. Services formerly performed by
Metro now are performed by the County. All obligations and contracts with Metro have
been assumed by the county.
Mill: The property tax rate that is based on the valuation of property. A tax rate of one mill
produces $1 of taxes on each $1,000 of property valuation.
Mission Statement: A declaration of a unit or of the overall organization's goal or purpose. The City of
Auburn's Mission Statement can be found immediately following the Table of Contents in
the Final Budget document.
MIT: Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.
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Mitigation Fees: Fees paid by developers to equitably share the cost of infrastructure improvements
required for supporting the development project.
Modified Accrual Basis of Accounting: Refers to the method of accounting in which (a) revenues are
recognized in the accounting period of which they become available and measurable
and (b) expenditures are recognized in the accounting period in which the fund liability is
incurred, if measurable, except for unmatured interest on general long-term debt and
certain similar accrued obligations, which should be recognized when due.
Object:
As used in expenditure classification, this term applies to the type of item purchased or the
service obtained (as distinguished from the results obtained from expenditures). Examples
are personal services, contractual services, and materials and supplies.
PAA (Potential Annexation Area): Those currently unincorporated areas the city intends to annex
within the 20-year time frame in the Comprehensive Plan.
PERS: Washington's Public Employees' Retirement System.
Program Improvements: Program improvements are a type of budgetary action which consists of
new initiatives or substantial changes to existing programs.
Proprietary Funds: A group of funds which account for the activities of the City which are of a
proprietary or "business" character.
Public Safety:
A term used to identify collectively the Police and Fire services.
Public Works Trust Fund (PWTF): A state program that makes available low-interest loans to help local
governments with public works projects.
Regular Levy:
The portion of the property tax which supports the General Fund.
Revenue: Refers to income from all sources, i.e. property taxes, fines and fees, permits, etc.
Revenue Bonds: Bonds which are retired by means of revenue, usually a proprietary fund. In a strict
sense, these bonds are not secured by the tax base of the full faith and credit of the City,
although sometimes general obligation bonds which are being retired by revenue may be
referred inaccurately to as revenue bonds. While the full faith and credit of the City is not
pledged as security, the revenue of a utility often is.
RTID: Regional Transportation Improvement District
Special Assessments: An assessment similar to a tax (but legally distinct and is separately billed),
applied to property participating in a Local Improvement District (LID) to retire the LID
debt.
Special Levy:
Separate property tax levies authorized by the voters for specific purposes.
Special Revenue (Series 100 Funds): A type of governmental fund which accounts the proceeds
of specific revenue sources that are legally restricted for expenditures.
Tax Base: The wealth of the community available to be taxed by various forms of City taxes.
Commonly thought of as the assessed value of the community.
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TIP:
UTGO:
WRIA:
Appendix
Transportation Improvement Program.
Unlimited tax general obligation bonds.
Water Resources Inventory Area.
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