10:15am | Long Beach city officials have submitted a request to the Harbor Department seeking a nearly $17 million transfer into the city’s Tidelands Fund based on the department’s fiscal year 2011 operating revenue under an annual agreement recently augmented after voters in November approved Measure D.
The $16,920,700 request is based on the port’s estimated gross operating revenue for fiscal year 2011, which ends Sept. 30. The amount will later be adjusted to reflect the final gross operating revenue as determined by the Harbor Department’s audited 2011 financial statements, said acting Director of Financial Management David Nakamoto in a July 5 staff report.
The city since 1995 had received 10 percent of the port’s net income each year for the special fund, which covers costs for services and other expenditures related to the city’s coastline, such as lifeguards, beach maintenance, the convention center and aquarium debt payments. With the passage of Measure D, however, the city starting this fiscal year can annually request up to 5 percent of the port’s gross operating revenue.
The Long Beach City Council on July 5 approved a resolution calling for the request to be submitted to the Harbor Department. The request must next be approved by the Harbor Commission. The commission must approve the transfer before the Council can approve the city’s overall budget for the 2012 fiscal year because the budget must included the transfer.
The Board of Harbor Commissioners on June 20 approved the Harbor Department’s proposed fiscal year 2012 budget, which did not include the harbor tidelands transfer based on 2011 revenue. Port spokesman Daniel Yi said the transfer was not included in the Harbor Department’s budget because a transfer request had not been submitted.
Without the harbor tidelands transfer, the Tidelands Fund would face a $12.1 million structural deficit in fiscal year 2012, Nakamoto said.