Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Styczynski presents the Fiscal Year Budget 2024-25 to the mayor and council at the May 21 meeting.

MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) - On May 21, Marysville Mayor Chris Branscum and City Council were informed that the city currently has a budget deficit.

Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Styczynski presented the first Fiscal Year 2024-2025 budget presentation, informing officials that “nothing is written in stone” but the numbers come up short.

“For next year, we are looking at our total revenue being about $15.5 million. Of that, $14.5 is ongoing revenue and then our non-recurring revenue is just under a $1 million,” Styczynski said, adding that there is a lack after expenditures are figured in. “Bottomline, we are looking at a projected deficit of $1.77 million.”

Styczynski made it clear that anything can change.

“I really want to clarify: if we take away our one-time costs and we are only looking at our operating costs, we actually have a surplus of around $334,000, so we are operating in surplus, but when we use our one-time funds, which are around $2.1 million of funds, we are proposing that is why we are showing a projected deficit for the next fiscal year,” she said.

 Budget Capital projects are included in the Fiscal Year Budget, which according to Marysville Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Styczynski is coming up short.

Presenting a five-year scope of finances in a 22-slide presentation, Styczynski said from 2020 to 2023, the first three years, revenue “has been fairly stable but expenses are increasing because we have salary increases between 5 and 10% a year through labor negotiations.”

 Here is the Marysville General Fund Overview that projects all revenues and expenditures over a five-year period.

“Overall, the big picture of the economy is that with interest rates going up to curb inflation, the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates and we went from 0% to 5.5%,” Styczynski said.

For the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Marysville compares with the San Franscisco-Oakland—Hayward regions, according to Styczynski.

“It was up in February around 2.4%,” Styczynski said, adding there is a shift in consumer behavior because people are opting to buy more household items over expensive purchases.

One foreseeable major change is sales tax, according to Styczynski, who said there is little to no growth due to the change in consumer spending. Marysville saw an increase in unfunded liability due to the California Public Employee’s Retirement System not meeting investment goals.

According to Styczynski, insurance increases rose. On average, there is about a 31% increase overall, equivalent to

approximately $300,000. Additionally, she said that the sale of the B Street property would bring in some funds, along with American Rescue Plan Act funds, at about $1.6 million.

Non-recurring funds are also key to the budget. Styczynski detailed grant revenues, including the $140,000 Yuba Water Agency Grant and the Gavin Park $106,932 Prop 68 grant that will help balance the budget. 

Styczynski detailed proposed one-time General Fund expenditures, including the $180,000 needed to complete the General Plan. One slide showed a General Fund overview of proposed expenses, including street enterprise projects in play, including the 22nd Street upgrade in East Marysville, which gets a grant from the Sacramento Area Council of Government. 

After Styczynski gave the budget breakdown in graphics, she informed the officials of the final figures.

“The big news everyone wants to see is where we are going with our numbers,” she said. “We are looking at a projected fund balance of around $7.3 million, as of June 30, 2024, but again, this is an unaudited projection number since we still have several more months to go in this fiscal year.”

Styczynski informed officials of the next steps, including two budget workshops on June 4 and 18. The council expects to approve the budget on June 18 and adopt it on June 25.