ORANGE COVE – Thanks to an influx of more than half a million dollars obtained through a tax rebate, the city of Orange Cove is able to get started on some one-time projects intended to improve city services and amenities.
Finance Director Danny Jimenez presented the tax rebate and other mid-year budget adjustments to the general fund and garbage disposal fund to the Orange Cove City Council May 13. The council voted 4-0, with Mayor Diana Guerra Silva absent, to approve the amendments. Jimenez also provided a report on how the city has followed its budget through the first three quarters of fiscal year 2025-26.
“The city council adopted the ’25-26 budget last year in June, but periodically budget amendments are necessary to reflect updated revenue projections, unanticipated expenditures, grant awards and operational needs that were not known at the time,” Jimenez said.
Tax rebate
Jimenez said city staff had brought up the possibility of a tax rebate before the fiscal year began, but did not include anything about it in the budget because they were not sure if they would receive anything or how much they would get.
Orange Cove ultimately received more than $548,000 through federal tax credits made available under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
With this additional revenue, city staff requested that the council approve various one-time expense items. This included additional equipment for the police department, a new animal control officer truck and funding for the city’s Hispanic Heritage event.
Jimenez also presented a $148,000 budget amendment for expenses related to unanticipated professional services. Some of this was for a consultant that helped the city submit everything it needed to receive the tax rebate, some went to accounting consultant services and a majority of it was for engineering services, Jimenez said.
Additionally, Orange Cove plans to use $200,000 to renovate the softball fields located behind the community center. Jimenez said that years ago, the city had received money from the state to repair the fields, which were damaged when used as a staging area for wildfire response. At the time, those funds had been redirected to other maintenance needs, Jimenez said.
The city also received additional revenue from the Orange Cove Police Protection District and amended the budget to reflect the approximately $36,000 increase.
Budget progress
The city has been mostly on track with its budget through the first nine months of the fiscal year. According to Jimenez’s report, the general fund had recorded 78% of its expected revenues and 73% of its anticipated expenses through the end of March.
The water and wastewater funds had recorded less than three-quarters of their expected revenue, coming in at 58% each, but were on track with anticipated expenses at 71% and 74%, respectively.
These funds showed lower revenues collected because of the way the city’s billing cycle works, Jimenez said. Water and wastewater services provided in March, for example, would be paid for in April.
Jimenez said there was, however, one fund that required a significant amendment: the city had overestimated both the revenues and expenses it would see in the refuse, or garbage service, enterprise fund. As of March, Orange Cove had recorded 47% of the expected revenues for the fund and 40% of the anticipated expenses.
To better reflect the actual revenues and expenses, the council approved decreasing the annual refuse fund budget from showing $770,000 in revenues to showing $590,000. Expenses were decreased from $533,211 in the original budget to $353,211 in the updated budget.
Mid Valley Disposal has taken over the billing services for commercial customers, which is why the budget for the fund is lower overall, Jimenez said.
Although these adjustments were for the fiscal year 2025-26 budget, the city will soon present its draft of the fiscal year 2026-27 budget to residents and the city council for adoption by the end of June.
