Focus Area Leadership Teams:
An Assessment
October 2004 COUNTY BUDGET
TRENDS
An Assessment of County Dollars by Agency
SOI-04-02 - 2 -
County Budget Trends
The following report was prepared by the Office of Strategic Organizational Improvement for the Education Budget Advisory Committee. The data represents actual County dollars spent by agency for Fiscal Years (FY) 2001 through 2004. The FY 2005 data represents the County dollars allocated for each agency in the adopted budget.
Actual County dollars were determined by examining all expenses and encumbrances incurred by each agency for each FY, subtracting all additional revenues. Revenue includes Federal, State, and Other dollars (grants, etc…). The data used in this analysis was extracted from the County’s financial system (Advantage). Data on expenses and encumbrances was obtained using the A9 Expense and Encumbrance report from the Expense database. Revenue data was obtained using the A1 Revenue report from the Revenue database.
Table 1 illustrates the 10 agencies that have received the most County dollars each fiscal year from FY01 to FY05. Appendix A illustrates the amount of County dollars received by each agency from FY01 to FY05.
Table 1. Top 10 Agencies by Amount of County Dollars Received
Agency1 / FY01Actual Dollars / FY02
Actual Dollars / FY03
Actual Dollars / FY04
Actual Dollars2 / FY05
Adopted Dollars
CMS Expense3 / $221,769,622 / $251,113,670 / $254,802,552 / $252,336,407 / $261,500,000
Social Services / 73,057,761 / 66,205,330 / 74,446,385 / 76,740,804 / 79,863,821
CMS Debt Service4 / 45,393,971 / 55,204,595 / 60,283,111 / 67,253,685 / 76,167,387
General Debt Service / 40,322,199 / 59,022,646 / 60,251,559 / 65,726,075 / 60,495,329
Sheriff's Office / 49,054,424 / 46,708,334 / 52,386,836 / 53,650,388 / 59,476,016
Area Mental Health / 34,276,250 / 34,223,709 / 28,628,883 / 31,372,309 / 35,731,046
Public Library / 21,139,891 / 23,010,042 / 24,064,402 / 23,804,818 / 25,784,136
Park & Recreation / 22,379,452 / 22,428,651 / 23,093,518 / 23,211,044 / 25,249,127
Hospitals / 17,430,117 / 17,690,740 / 17,867,859 / 19,402,495 / 17,775,000
CPCC / $13,126,207 / $14,444,109 / $16,083,285 / $15,944,963 / $17,765,853
1 Non-Departmental Appropriations falls within the Top 10 in several years covered by this analysis, however there is extreme variance in the dollars amounts year to year therefore it is excluded from consideration in this analysis.
2 In FY04 it appears as if CMS received less funding from the County, however budget to budget CMS total funding was the same in FY03 and FY04.
3 CMS Expense was calculated by subtracting Revenue from Expenses and Encumbrances, then subtracting out CMS Debt Service. It is important to note that CMS Expense does not include fines and forfeitures.
4 CMS Debt Services County dollars is based on data provided in the adopted budgets for each of the corresponding fiscal years. With the reports used to identify actual County dollars there was no way to separate CMS Debt Service from CMS Expenses, therefore the adopted budget County dollars were used for each fiscal year.
Table 1 indicates that Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) is the primary recipient of County dollars. Debt services, both CMS and the County’s General Debt Service, accounted for increasing amounts of actual dollars spent across the last four fiscal years. The Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services and the Sheriff’s Office, the County’s two largest departments, also account for a large proportion of County dollars. The other County operated agencies in the top 10 were Area Mental Health and Parks and Recreation. Several County supported agencies were in the top 10 as well, these included the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library, Hospitals, and Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC).
Examining the total actual County dollars by agency can be helpful because it demonstrates the amounts allocated by the County to individual agencies year to year. However, it is also important to examine how those amounts vary across the years. Table 2 illustrates the percent change in amount of County dollars year to year for each of the agencies listed in Table 1. A complete listing of percent changes year to year for all County agencies is located in Appendix A.
Table 2. Percent Change in the Amount of County Dollars Received
Agency / Percent Change*FY01 to FY02 / Percent Change
FY02 to FY03 / Percent Change
FY03 to FY04 / Percent Change
FY04 to FY051
CMS Expense / 13.23 / 1.47 / -0.97 / 3.63
Social Services / -9.38 / 12.45 / 3.08 / 4.07
CMS Debt Service2 / 21.61 / 9.20 / 11.56 / 13.25
General Debt Service / 46.38 / 2.08 / 9.09 / -7.96
Sheriff's Office / -4.78 / 12.16 / 2.41 / 10.86
Area Mental Health / -0.15 / -16.35 / 9.58 / 13.89
Public Library / 8.85 / 4.58 / -1.08 / 8.31
Park & Recreation / 0.22 / 2.96 / 0.51 / 8.78
Hospitals / 1.50 / 1.00 / 8.59 / -8.39
CPCC / 10.04 / 11.35 / -0.86 / 11.42
* Percent change was calculated using the following formula (with FY01 to FY02 as the example): [(Total County Dollars FY02- Total County Dollars FY01)/Total County Dollars FY01]*100
1 Percent Change FY04 to FY05 compares actual dollars (FY04) to adopted dollars (FY05).
2 Percent change is based on adopted dollars for each fiscal year, FY01 to FY05.
Table 2 illustrates that there is some variance, agency to agency, in regards to amount of funding from County dollars year to year. Parks and Recreation and CMS Debt Service were the only two agencies that received some level of funding increase year to year from FY01 to FY05. All other agencies experienced decreased amounts of County dollars at some point compared to the amount of County dollars received in the prior year. Some of these decreases were small (CMS and CPCC -1% in FY04 compared to FY03), while other decreases were larger (AMH -16% in FY03 compared to FY02).
To best analyze trends in the percent change in County dollars received by agencies it is helpful to plot the percent changes in a graph. The following graph illustrates the percent change in County dollars by agency for the five agencies that receive the most total County dollars.
The chart illustrates that there are no directly observable trends across all agencies. CMS and CMS Debt Service tend to follow the same pattern of funding, except from FY03 to FY04 where CMS experienced a slight decrease in funding from County dollars (the footnotes in Table 1 illustrate that total CMS funding did not decrease). The Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services and the Sheriff’s Office also follow a similar pattern of funding levels from FY01 through FY04. The County’s General Debt Service followed no specific pattern in regards to funding levels, nor was the observable trend similar to any of the other four agencies.
Overall examination of the percent changes in County dollars by agency demonstrates that there are no indicators to suggest any observable trends in funding across agencies. The data in Table 2 illustrates that even the agencies that receive the largest amounts of actual County dollars experience increases and decreases in funding across various fiscal years. The table illustrating percent change in Appendix A illustrates that this is true across all County operated and supported agencies.
Appendix A
The following tables illustrate the amount of County dollars received by each agency, and the percent change in actual County dollars received by each agency from FY01 to FY05.
County Dollars by Agency
Agency / FY01Actual Dollars / FY02
Actual Dollars / FY03
Actual Dollars / FY04
Actual Dollars / FY05
Adopted Dollars
County Commissioners1 / $2,614,564 / $365,535 / $286,385 / $303,375 / $363,165
County Manager's Office1, 2 / 2,538,903 / 2,907,924 / 3,189,960 / 2,708,781
Public Service & Information / 817,770 / 790,144 / 894,090 / 930,504 / 929,651
Office of Minority Affairs3 / 206,194 / 72,947
Internal Audit / 434,097 / 430,825 / 450,286 / 465,437 / 508,181
Attorney's Office / 521,174 / 550,823 / 521,372 / 490,851 / 539,698
Human Resources / 2,305,807 / 2,645,216 / 4,037,005 / 3,095,921 / 2,751,874
Information Services and Technology4 / 11,978,333 / 12,640,493 / 12,781,398 / 13,039,889
Real Estate Services5 / 795,978 / 744,522 / 1,154,773 / 738,148
General Services4 / 11,663,744 / 10,634,371 / 10,542,015 / 11,002,399
Non-Departmental Appropriation6 / 6,974,401 / 1,411,199 / 20,888,904 / 4,345,143 / 25,244,241
Capital Reserve Fund6 / 1,902,652 / 1,939,981 / 0 / 1,371,002 / 668,025
Finance / 3,310,742 / 2,244,505 / 1,872,402 / 2,510,985 / 2,082,331
Tax Collector / 10,666,458 / 2,056,562 / 2,515,759 / 2,214,100 / 2,326,827
LUESA7 / 6,512,677 / 12,500,652 / 8,636,705 / 11,955,377 / 11,898,875
Register of Deeds / (6,516,287) / (7,529,589) / (10,572,724) / (12,560,377) / (9,933,669)
Public Library / 21,139,891 / 23,010,042 / 24,064,402 / 23,804,818 / 25,784,136
Park & Recreation / 22,379,452 / 22,428,651 / 23,093,518 / 23,211,044 / 25,249,127
Cooperative Extension Services8 / 567,455 / 453,609 / 477,166
Women's Commission / 529,216 / 1,094,661 / 1,303,197 / 1,172,047 / 1,264,026
Elections / 1,564,788 / 1,411,994 / 1,987,188 / 1,530,143 / 1,666,254
Community Development9 / 259,906 / 292,778
Court Services Department10 / 4,196,642 / 2,236,746 / 1,360,349 / 3,390,475
State Justice System11 / (102,657)
Medical Examiner / 290,465 / 328,102 / 321,235 / 386,874 / 477,893
Sheriff's Office / 49,054,424 / 46,708,334 / 52,386,836 / 53,650,388 / 59,476,016
Veteran's Services / 400,715 / 396,826 / 421,695 / 442,796 / 455,671
Public Health / 13,482,386 / 13,258,363 / 14,213,556 / 15,622,921 / 16,332,715
Area Mental Health / 34,276,250 / 34,223,709 / 28,628,883 / 31,372,309 / 35,731,046
Social Services / 73,057,761 / 66,205,330 / 74,446,385 / 76,740,804 / 79,863,821
Emergency Medical Services / 9,307,845 / 11,839,093 / 11,640,000 / 11,040,000 / 12,541,096
Agency / FY01
Actual Dollars / FY02
Actual Dollars / FY03
Actual Dollars / FY04
Actual Dollars / FY05
Adopted Dollars
Outside Agencies / $1,891,816 / $4,517,432 / $2,535,292 / $2,914,853 / $1,456,747
Historic Landmarks Commission12 / $112,010 / $83,284 / $75,121 / $54,362
City-County Departments / 325,604 / 1,235,998 / 930,653 / 302,083 / 718,472
WTVI Operations and Service / 2,047,259 / 2,349,161 / 2,825,892 / 2,379,696 / 2,141,426
Hospitals / 17,430,117 / 17,690,740 / 17,867,859 / 19,402,495 / 17,775,000
Total County Services / $279,077,771 / $291,312,029 / $312,143,353 / $306,735,995 / $345,753,567
General Debt Service / $40,322,199 / $59,022,646 / $60,251,559 / $65,726,075 / $60,495,329
CMS Expense / 221,769,622 / 251,113,670 / 254,802,552 / 252,336,407 / 261,500,000
CMS Debt Service6 / 45,393,971 / 55,204,595 / 60,283,111 / 67,253,685 / 76,167,387
CPCC / 13,126,207 / 14,444,109 / 16,083,285 / 15,944,963 / 17,765,853
CPCC Debt6 / 6,543,073 / 8,442,920 / 8,551,276 / 9,734,803 / 11,600,840
Total Educational Services / $286,832,873 / $329,205,294 / $339,720,224 / $345,269,859 / $367,034,080
Total County Appropriation / $606,232,843 / $679,539,969 / $712,115,136 / $717,731,929 / $773,282,976
1 In FY01, the County Manager’s Office and the County Commissioners were budgeted together.
2 County Manager’s Office includes the Clerk to the Board and the Budget Office
3 The Office of Minority Affairs was put under the County Manager’s Office in FY03 and FY04, in FY05 the position was moved under Human Resources.
4 County dollars are not included for FY01 because both GSA and IST were utilizing the Internal Service Fund to charge back the cost of services to internal clients. All costs were covered by the General Fund and based on that framework it is impossible to separate actual revenue from County dollars. Therefore, the FY01 actual County dollars are not reported.
5 Real Estate Services was a part of Engineering in FY01, Engineering became part of LUESA with the FY02 budget.
6 Dollars illustrated here are not actual dollars, they are the County dollars approved for the adopted budget for each fiscal year.
7 The FY01 actual dollars come from Engineering, Environmental Health, and Environmental Protection which were joined together to form LUESA in FY02.
8 Cooperative Extension Services became part of Parks and Recreation in FY04.
9 Community Development was eliminated in FY04 and it was a part of Engineering in FY01.
10 Court Services was eliminated in the FY05 budget, portions of the department moved under the Sheriff’s Office and the County Manager’s Office.
11 State Justice System represents a project previously managed by Court Services.
12 Historic Landmarks was part of Engineering in FY01, Engineering is reported under LUESA.
Percent Change in County Dollars by Agency
County Commissioners1 / -86.02% / -21.65% / 5.93% / 19.71%
County Manager's Office1, 2 / 14.53% / 9.70% / -15.08%
Public Service & Information / -3.38% / 13.16% / 4.07% / -0.09%
Office of Minority Affairs3 / -64.62% / -100.00%
Internal Audit / -0.75% / 4.52% / 3.36% / 9.18%
Attorney's Office / 5.69% / -5.35% / -5.85% / 9.95%
Human Resources / 14.72% / 52.62% / -23.31% / -11.11%
Information Services and Technology4 / 5.53% / 1.11% / 2.02%
Real Estate Services5 / -6.46% / 55.10% / -36.08%
General Services4 / -8.83% / -0.87% / 4.37%
Non-Departmental Appropriation6 / -79.77% / 1380.22% / -79.20% / 480.98%
Capital Reserve Fund6 / 1.96% / -100.00% / -51.27%
Finance / -32.21% / -16.58% / 34.11% / -17.07%
Tax Collector / -80.72% / 22.33% / -11.99% / 5.09%
LUESA7 / 91.94% / -30.91% / 38.43% / -0.47%
Register of Deeds / 15.55% / 40.42% / 18.80% / -20.91%
Public Library / 8.85% / 4.58% / -1.08% / 8.31%
Park & Recreation / 0.22% / 2.96% / 0.51% / 8.78%
Cooperative Extension Services8 / -20.06% / 5.19% / -100.00%
Women's Commission / 106.85% / 19.05% / -10.06% / 7.85%
Elections / -9.76% / 40.74% / -23.00% / 8.90%
Community Development9 / 12.65% / -100.00%
Court Services Department10 / -46.70% / -39.18% / 149.24% / -100.00%
State Justice System11
Medical Examiner / 12.96% / -2.09% / 20.43% / 23.53%
Sheriff's Office / -4.78% / 12.16% / 2.41% / 10.86%
Veteran's Services / -0.97% / 6.27% / 5.00% / 2.91%
Public Health / -1.66% / 7.20% / 9.92% / 4.54%
Area Mental Health / -0.15% / -16.35% / 9.58% / 13.89%
Social Services / -9.38% / 12.45% / 3.08% / 4.07%
Emergency Medical Services / 27.19% / -1.68% / -5.15% / 13.60%
Outside Agencies / 138.79% / -43.88% / 14.97% / -50.02%
Agency / FY01 to FY02 / FY02 to FY03 / FY03 to FY04 / FY04 to FY05
Historic Landmarks Commission12 / -25.65% / -9.80% / -27.63%
City-County Departments / 279.60% / -24.70% / -67.54% / 137.84%
WTVI Operations and Service / 14.75% / 20.29% / -15.79% / -10.01%
Hospitals / 1.50% / 1.00% / 8.59% / -8.39%
Total County Services / 4.38% / 7.15% / -1.73% / 11.72%
General Debt Service / 46.38% / 2.08% / 9.09% / -7.96%
CMS Expense / 13.23% / 1.47% / -0.97% / 3.63%
CMS Debt Service6 / 21.61% / 9.20% / 11.56% / 13.25%
CPCC / 10.04% / 11.35% / -0.86% / 11.42%
CPCC Debt6 / 29.04% / 1.28% / 13.84% / 19.17%
Total Educational Services / 14.77% / 3.19% / 1.63% / 6.30%
Total County Appropriation / 12.09% / 4.79% / 0.79% / 7.31%
1 In FY01, the County Manager’s Office and the County Commissioners were budgeted together.