Budget/Financing

What was the MMSD Budget in 2004/05?

2 Comments

Help! I’m getting a major headache. I’ve been trying to track some changes in the MMSD budget over the last 5-10 years, and I have noticed that the numbers aren’t always the same in the different places that I have been looking. At first, I figured it just me and that definitions for budget categories change from year to year. However, I decided to look at something simple and straightforward: What was the total MMSD budget for 2004/2005? I have included the sources of this information for anyone who wants to check my work, but I tell you it’s driving me nuts.

  • $370,226,157 – This number comes from an April 2006 Executive Summary
  • $363,366,630 – This is from a 10/24/05 Budget Amendments and Tax Levy document and this budget number includes interfund transfers.
  • $320,039,617 – If we remove interfund transfers from the budget, the above document lists this number as our total budget.
  • $316,822,781 – I found this budget amount listed twice: in a five year budget forecast from 2/14/05 and a preliminary budget forecast dated 3/7/05
  • $317,695,011 – On 5/3/05, the 2005-06 Budget and Financial Summaries document listed this amount for the 2004/05 budget.
  • $317,163,034 – this amount is similar but not identical; it comes from page 233 of the 2005-06 Budget Book released on 5/17/05
  • $318,789,509 – this is the MMSD 2004/05 budget according to DPI’s website
  • $334,626,013.5 – this is a final guess at a budget number and it comes from the Five Year Financial Forecast document that the District had prepared by PMA Financial Network. This number is based on FY2004 and FY2005 data for Fund 10 ($265,678,423; $272,015,465) and Fund 27 ($66,148,621; $65,409,518). I just added the amounts for each fund for each FY (2004: $331827044; 2005: $337424983) and then averaged them as I wasn’t sure what the relation was of a FY (fiscal year) to a school budget year. I should also state the obvious that I know the MMSD budget includes expenses beyond these two funds, but that was all that was in the document.

I realize that some variability can be the result of numbers computed before the end of the school year, but shouldn’t all of the numbers computed after the end of the 2004/05 school year be the same? I have to be honest, this doesn’t make me feel very confident about the District’s money management abilities.

2 thoughts on “What was the MMSD Budget in 2004/05?”

  1. And people wonder why they hear so many complaints about the MMSD budget.
    The next step would be to compare spending from year to year to see how spending increases or decreases in various budget categories and programs.

  2. Please, no; that is where this all started. I was trying to answer what I though would be a simple question when I began. I settled for a whole(total) budget number because I thought it would be a more straightforward figure. I mean it is supposed to be the “bottom line.” This little adventure in accounting was frustrating enough. I don’t think I could last going through the numbers for different line items, because then I am back where I started and I’ve got to deal with changing definitions of services, different accounts being used to fund, etc. It would be a full time job, and a full time headache.

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