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HOW TO USE THIS BUDGET DOCUMENT
<br />A READERS GUIDE
<br />The City of La Porte Budget Document provides comprehensive information about City policies, goals,
<br />objectives, financial structure, operations, and an organizational framework that shows how City services are
<br />maintained and improved for fiscal year 2003-2004.
<br />The preparation of a budget is, at best, a complex process. Yet, the process affords both an interesting and
<br />challenging opportunity to reassess plans and overall goals and means for accomplishing them. It is through
<br />this effort that the budget could be the single most important policy document produced each year.
<br />The process begins many months before presentation to the Council with estimates of City expenditures,
<br />revenues and reserves to determine the City’s available funds. With this groundwork, departmental
<br />expenditure requests are made and subsequently reviewed. This year's budget process began in May.
<br />The Budget serves as an operational tool and planning guide, wherein the present policies and plans for the
<br />future are presented for the scrutiny of citizens, the ultimate consumers of municipal services.
<br />The budget document includes summaries, mission statements, and organizational charts for each
<br />department. Goals and objectives, performance indicators, staffing levels, a narrative explaining services,
<br />and the line item detail are all presented on a divisional basis.
<br />BUDGET FORMAT
<br />The document is divided into twelve major sections: Introduction, Budget Information and Summaries,
<br />General Fund, Utility Fund, Enterprise Funds, Internal Service Funds, Capital Improvement Funds, Debt
<br />Service Funds, Miscellaneous, Statistical Information, Financial Management Policies, and Glossary of
<br />Terms.
<br />Introduction
<br />The Section includes the City Manager’s Message, which is addressed to the Mayor and City
<br />Council and explains the major policies, trends and issues that affected the development of the 2003-2004
<br />budget. This section also contains information on the Budgetary Plan and Process, an explanation of our
<br />Fund Organization, a description of the City and it’s economic background, and a copy of the City’s Long
<br />Range Goals.
<br />Budget Information and Summaries
<br />The Section includes an overall summary of the Budget, information
<br />on taxes, and summaries of both revenues and expenditures that might interest the lay reader. The ordinances
<br />adopting the Budget and levying taxes, and the resolution adopting the 2003 Appraisal Roll is presented in
<br />this section. Additionally, the Personnel Summary, which recaps staffing levels by division for a three-year
<br />period is included in this section. Of particular interest to the lay reader would be the Combined Summary of
<br />Changes in Working Capital.
<br />The accounts of the City are organized on the basis of funds and account groups, each of which is considered
<br />to be a separate accounting entity. Each fund can be generally thought of as a small business. The
<br />operations of each fund are maintained using a set of self-balancing accounts, which comprise its assets,
<br />liabilities, fund equity, revenues, and expenditures or expenses. Resources are budgeted to the individual
<br />funds by activity and are controlled within the fund. The next four sections are the Fund Sections and are
<br />organized as follows: Fund Summary, Statement of Revenues, Department Summary, Divisional Goals and
<br />Objectives, and the Divisional Summary.
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