Posted on December 13, 2014 at 4:00 pm by Clay Curtin
As was the case in fiscal year 2013-14, the cities in San Mateo County were recently informed of another triple flip shortfall, which will negatively impact General Fund revenues in fiscal year 2014-15. The triple flip is a mechanism by which a portion of sales and use taxes that previously went to counties and cities were instead diverted to make debt payments on the State’s Economic Recovery Bonds. The diverted funds were supposed to be repaid from the local Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) monies. When ERAF monies are not sufficient to cover the entire obligation, there is a shortfall. For Menlo Park, this shortfall will result in a reduction of approximately $143,000 in its triple flip payment in fiscal year 2014-15. As was reported through the weekly digest earlier this fiscal year, the City did receive a full repayment for the previous triple flip shortfall in August, which totaled approximately $400,000. The County of San Mateo has informed the cities of its intent to request that the State include an appropriation in its fiscal year 2015-16 budget to cover the most recent shortfall.