City Hall has completed its annual financial report, although it comes three months behind schedule and the first to come in late since 2016.

Lincoln Saunders, the city’s chief administrative officer, told City Council at the Feb. 6 presentation that the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report proved more difficult as the Finance Department was operating with only 58 percent of its positions filled.

The completed ACFR showed the city finished the 2021-22 fiscal year on June 30 with about $35 million in “surplus” or unexpended funds, or close to a previous estimate from Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration.

The council has already approved Mayor Stoney’s plan to return $18 million to tax-paying property owners.

According to the ACFR, most of the unspent dollars have been spoken for.

However, $9.2 million is earmarked for the two pots that constitute the “rainy day” fund or savings.

The report stated the city completed the 2021-22 fiscal year with a combined $133.1 million in the two elements of the rainy day fund, the unassigned fund and the revenue and budget stabilization fund.

That represents a 7 percent increase from the previous 2020-21 fiscal year when the city reported $124.4 million combined in the two funds.

The total in both funds represents 17.1 percent of the $776.4 million in actual expenditures and transfers, according to the report, or slightly higher than the 16.67 percent a council policy requires.

One reason for the growth in the rainy day fund is that Richmond saw a huge increase in real estate tax collections during the 2021-22 fiscal year, the report noted.

The original budget for that year estimated $414.8 million would be collected from the tax on real estate. An amended budget that council later approved estimated the collections would hit $426.3 million, an $11.5 million increase.

According to the ACFR, actual city collections of the tax reached a record $456.6 million, a $30 million increase over the amended budget and nearly $42 million more than the original budget.