The city of Boston ended fiscal year 2015 (which closed June 30, 2015) with a $7.4 million General Fund operating surplus, slightly smaller than the $9.5 million surplus in FY14, according to the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

The surplus is due to the fact that actual receipts exceeded budgeted revenues by $44.8 million (1.6 percent), which was greater than the $37.5 million that actual spending exceeded final appropriations. The General Fund surplus represents 0.27 percent of city spending of $2.77 billion.

Expenditure

The $37.5 million in spending over appropriations is driven by three main factors:

• Snow removal costs were expected to greatly exceed the budget, but federal reimbursements helped limit the general fund spending to $19.9 million over its appropriation.
• Police and Fire department overtime costs contributed to a combined departmental deficit of $24.2 million.
• Court judgments and legal claims paid by the city exceeded its budget by $6.2 million in FY15.

Revenue

The city’s conservative estimates on revenues once again produced a revenue surplus at year’s end. Actual receipts of $2.780 billion in FY15 were $44.8 million over budget estimates. The excise surplus of $25.6 million included room occupancy ($15 million), motor vehicle ($11.1 million) and meals ($2.9 million), as well as shortfalls in aircraft fuel (-$2.3 million) and other small accounts. Building permit receipts were $23.7 million (84.8 percent) over budget. State aid was $5.1 million less than expected due mainly to the state only funding the charter tuition reimbursement at 63.5 percent of its full obligation.

For the fifth year in a row, the revenue surplus allowed the city to forego using non-recurring revenues budgeted for operations. The city was able to use recurring revenues instead of non-recurring revenues totaling $40.8 million, which included the full $40 million free cash appropriation and cemetery trust fund receipts of $772,800. Unlike last year, the city did take into receipt the entire $19 million that was budgeted from the parking meter fund.