As part of the annual budget development process, the City of Novato uses a forecasting tool to assure costs for recommended service levels are sustainable on a long-term basis.  The forecast centers around the City’s General Fund which pays for most required services delivered by the City including public safety, public works, parks and recreation, community development, administrative costs, and infrastructure improvements such as roads and parks.

The Community General Fund Forecasting Tool (Forecasting Tool) has been developed to provide community constituents with an experimental environment to gauge the impacts of revenue and expenditure growth while considering additional funding alternatives for key General Fund fiscal requirements.  The Forecasting Tool uses the City’s Adopted General Fund Budget for Fiscal Year 2024-25, which is projected to use approximately $4 million in emergency reserves to maintain existing services through the end of the fiscal year.  

The Forecasting Tool allows the user to select annual growth assumptions for key revenue sources including Property Tax, Sales Tax and Transient Occupancy Tax.  The Forecasting Tool also provides the user with an option to review the fiscal impacts of whether the Measure M Sales Tax is adopted by City voters in November 2024.  

The Forecasting tool also allows the use to select annual growth assumptions for key expenditure drivers including staff and general operating costs, whether additional funding is made available for currently unfunded critical service and infrastructure needs; and cost-savings impacts of service level (staff) reductions.  

As the City strives to deliver defined and required levels of service it will be important to significantly mitigate existing and future General Fund deficits to assure sustainability well into the future.  A primary goal of using the Forecasting Tool would be to eliminate all future deficits while maintaining the annual General Fund Balance level at 15% of total expenditures per existing policy. 

We Want to Hear from You!

Try out the Forecasting Tool to gain insight into Novato’s financial situation and help shape possible solutions. Your perspective is invaluable and can help improve Novato’s financial future.

Please review the Community General Fund Forecasting Tool Instructions and Instructional Video before accessing the tool. 

Upload Submissions

Simply save your Forecasting Tool document and submit it below.