Redwood City – Delivering three primary services to residents — health, public safety and public assistance — made up the vast majority of the County’s expenses in the last fiscal year, according to the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) recently released by Controller Juan Raigoza. “This annual financial report is one of many ways that our office and County work to make the County’s financial activities transparent and understandable to residents and taxpayers.” Raigoza said.

While the County’s budget forecasts expected revenues and allocates funds, the ACFR shows revenues received, expenses incurred and the County’s assets and liabilities for fiscal year ending June 30, 2025.

Some financial highlights in this year’s report include:

• Cost of delivering three core services to residents comprised 77 percent of total expenditures: 40 percent for health (includes the San Mateo Medical Center and clinics), 22 percent for public safety and 15 percent for public assistance services.
• Housing Authority costs make up 6 percent, General Government (administration, elections, human resources, etc.) 12 percent, and Other (parks, roads and interest) 4 percent of total expenditures.
• Government-wide revenues totaled $3.2 billion, while expenditures totaled $2.6 billion.
• Net pension liabilities decreased to $722 million.
• Total taxes received (property, sales, transient occupancy, etc.) were $1.1 billion.
• Three revenue sources comprised 91 percent of total government-wide revenues: 36 percent from taxes (mostly property taxes), 28 percent from operating grants and contributions (mostly federal and state grants), and 27 percent from charges for services (largely Medicare, Medi-Cal and other insurance payments for health services).
• Capital assets increased by $166 million to $2.1 billion, primarily due to County’s investments in buildings and improvements to infrastructure, including the Health System Center Campus Upgrade and Cordilleras Mental Health Facility capital projects.

The report includes the County’s government-wide financial statements, fund financial statements (including the General Fund), management’s discussion and analysis and notes. The General Fund is used to finance and budget most of the County’s operations.

The Letter of Transmittal, which opens the ACFR, summarizes the County’s key financial management policies, economic indicators and other information.

The reported economic factors, uncertainties related to federal and State funding, risk of the State not fully paying its Vehicle License Fee Adjustment Amount obligations to the County and rising costs of services and goods will continue to necessitate prudent budgeting and financial management so the County can continue to provide essential services to its residents.

In addition to the ACFR, the County also publishes the Financial Highlights report, otherwise known as the Popular Annual Financial Report, which summarizes in an easy-to-read manner the information presented in the ACFR.

“These financial reports, annual budget reports, Property Tax Highlights publications and other information is available online via County’s website for everyone to learn about the services provided by the County and its financial activities,” Raigoza said.

The County’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and Financial Highlights report are available at https://smcgov.org/controller.

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Kim Le, Deputy Controller
(650) 363-4777
controller@smcgov.org