City Water Deficit to Be Cut in Half

After finding itself $8 million in the hole, the city’s water department will have climbed halfway out by the end of June, according to a recent financial report.

The City Council will review a report Tuesday that says, overall, revenues are up slightly better than budgeted, and that the city’s troubled water department is making progress.

In April 2011, the city discovered its water department was running seriously in the red, to the tune of $8.2 million. An audit late last year tried to answer why  and determined it was mostly caused by water rates not keeping up with expenses.

Now, the city is estimated that the deficit will be sliced to $3.9 million by the end of June 2013.

“Overall, water enterprise operations continue to project operating revenues exceeding expenses by $2.7 million,” states a report to City Council.

In other areas, the economy shows small signs of improvement, and revenues for the first quarter are $161,597 better than anticipated, the report states. That will easily provide for the $80,359 in extra spending the city has done.

The city’s financial health is reflection of the overall economy. The recent report shows that retail sales locally are up 18.2 percent over the year prior for the period ending June 30, 2012 and hotel taxes are up 30 percent. Property valuations show a slight increase at .5 percent, according to the report.

The City Council will meet 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 32400 Paseo Adelanto in San Juan Capistrano.