City finance presenters describe conservative revenue methods and 20-year planning snapshot

Finance presenters explained the methods the city uses to forecast revenues and shared a 20-year planning model used to compare low/medium/high revenue and expenditure scenarios. "We always have to have a balanced budget," one presenter said while walking through historical trend analysis, objective forecasts for known grants and department-driven projections.

The presenters described conservative assumptions for operating forecasts and said objective forecasting is used for known grant amounts (for example, certain state police funds). A follow-up presenter showed that the CIP is fully loaded into the planning model and said that if low-revenue scenarios persist while expenditures remain high, council will need to evaluate which projects to delay or what revenue options to pursue. "This gives us a very top level view of how we're doing years out," the presenter said.