Q&A
Council Member Brannan questions Department of Finance on audit revenues and staffing
3:52:20
·
4 min
Council Member Justin Brannan engages in a Q&A session with Department of Finance officials, primarily Commissioner Preston Niblack, about audit revenue projections and staffing issues. The discussion covers the increase in expected audit collections, the impact of hiring more auditors, and the process of promoting assistant assessors.
- The executive plan includes an additional $100 million in audit revenue for FY24, totaling $847 million.
- The Department of Finance is actively hiring new auditors, with 25 already brought in and 20 more in the pipeline.
- There's a discussion about the process of promoting assistant assessors to assessors and backfilling the assistant assessor positions to avoid cannibalizing the workforce.
Justin Brannan
3:52:20
Thank you, councilwoman Ortiz.
3:52:22
I'm talking about audit, revenues.
3:52:25
The executive plan includes an additional $100,000,000 of audit revenue for f y 24, raising expected audit collections from, for f y 24 to 847,000,000.
3:52:37
It's an indication for us that the audit revenue projections in the preliminary plan were underestimated after all.
3:52:45
Can you give us a little more detail on the audit revenue projections for the remaining time left in f y 24 and what's changed between prelim and exec that that drove it up?
Preston Niblack
3:52:57
So so so far this year, we've collected 7 in the 1st 8 months of the year, we collected $754,000,000.
3:53:05
You may recall I'm sure you recall that last year, we had one settlement that was for $450,000,000 roughly, give or take a few tens of 1,000,000, that, you know, that, by itself, obviously, swung the number substantially.
3:53:20
There's always a degree of uncertainty about, you know, the cases that we've got, how big, you know, the settlements might be, when we will reach a settlement.
3:53:29
So, you know, we we don't know for sure exactly.
3:53:35
We we have very low confidence, let me put it that way, in our estimate at the beginning of the year.
3:53:39
Mhmm.
3:53:39
And it's only as the year goes on that we, you know, sort of have a better picture of what the audit revenues are gonna look like.
3:53:47
We know the cases that we've got in the pipeline.
3:53:50
We know I'm okay.
3:53:51
Tanisha, don't interrupt the chair, please.
3:53:55
Alright.
3:53:56
In, we, you know, we know how many cases we've got in the pipeline, what the magnitude of the settlements is likely to be, etcetera.
3:54:02
So we refine our estimate going forward.
3:54:04
We talk to OMB continually about what we expect to see, and what we've already collected.
3:54:10
So that increase that was reflected, of the additional $100,000,000 really reflected sort of our better picture of what we anticipate will be brought in during the remainder of the tax year.
Justin Brannan
3:54:24
I mean, do you think that hiring more auditors would generate additional revenue for the city?
Preston Niblack
3:54:29
Yes.
3:54:30
Absolutely.
3:54:30
I mean, we you know, as you as you recall, we had a proposal that was, approved that allowed us to hire some additional auditors, in the expectation that they would bring in some additional revenue, and we are actively hiring them right now.
3:54:45
We brought in 25, new auditors with 20 more in the pipeline, and that will still leave us some vacancies, but it'll be a big boost, to have those additional auditors in.
3:55:00
It takes a little bit of time for them to start for to turn auditors into actual revenue collections, but, you know, I I expect next year we're gonna see the impact of that very clearly.
Justin Brannan
3:55:11
And, one flag that we've heard as far as the assessors is concerned, I think there's a concern that we're sort of cannibalizing the assistant assessors by hiring the assessors off the list.
3:55:24
So we need more assessors, but we also don't wanna be left with 0 assistant assess, assessors.
3:55:31
What's the how do we fix that?
Preston Niblack
3:55:32
So the assistant city assessors, we when we hire assistant city assessors, it's in the expectation that they will step up to become city city tax assessors level 1.
3:55:41
So I don't know, Jeff, if you wanna, like, elaborate on that any but through that process.
3:55:47
But
Jeffrey Shear
3:55:47
Well, and then part 2 is that when they, we hope that the the list that will be coming out in June, the assessor list will have many of our assistant assessors.
3:55:59
So when they are promoted to the assessor title, the intent is to backfill the open assistant assessor lines with with, new recruits.
3:56:10
Right.
3:56:10
So so we don't we're not going to cannibalize.
3:56:13
We're going to move up the, assistant assessors who have passed the test.
Justin Brannan
3:56:21
K.
3:56:23
K.
3:56:23
I think we're good.
3:56:25
Thank you very much.
3:56:26
Team, I appreciate all your hard work, and I will talk soon.
Preston Niblack
3:56:30
Thank you.
3:56:30
Great.
3:56:30
Thank you very much, mister chairman.
