Most of the fund remains after planned use
Kern’s Schedule 2 shows $1,421,506 in beginning balance for the General Plan Administration Surcharge fund and $457,998 in new financing. Together they provide $1,879,504.
The adopted plan assigns $750,000 to financing uses and leaves $1,129,504 obligated at year end. The carried amount is 60.1% of all available resources and 246.6% of the year’s projected surcharge revenue.
| Entry | FY 2025–26 adopted | Share of total resources |
|---|---|---|
| Opening balance | $1,421,506 | 75.6% |
| New financing | $457,998 | 24.4% |
| Financing uses | $750,000 | 39.9% |
| Ending balance | $1,129,504 | 60.1% |
Uses increase, but not enough to exhaust the cushion
Schedule 8 lists $484,665 in actual 2024–25 uses. The adopted $750,000 is $265,335 higher, a 54.7% increase, yet the ending balance still exceeds the new revenue by $671,506.
That does not establish overcollection. A general-plan update can require irregular multiyear consultant, environmental-review and public-engagement spending. The summary does not identify commitments against the balance.
Fee purpose and project schedule need more detail
The public schedules do not connect surcharge receipts to applications, rate schedules, contracts or milestone dates. Readers therefore cannot tell whether the retained balance is reserved for a defined update or simply accumulating.
A project ledger showing committed contracts and planned drawdown dates would answer that accountability question without assuming the fund should reach zero.
Method and limitation
The newsroom calculated shares using Schedule 2’s unrounded figures and compared adopted uses with the Schedule 8 actual column.
Obligated fund balance may include legal or contractual restrictions not visible in these summary pages. The analysis describes the accounting position, not the lawfulness of the surcharge.