Mission Viejo by the Numbers: How the City Spent Your Taxes

Mission Viejo spent about $50 million from its general fund last year. This is a breakdown of how that money was spent, plus how much tax money was raised for the city.

The most expensive general fund item for the city over the last fiscal year was public safety. Mission Viejo spent about $16.25 million on public safety, which was about $360,000 less than expected, according to the city's year-end financial report. That's about 30 percent of the total general fund cost.

After public safety, Mission Viejo spent most of its general fund money on infrastructure maintenance, which made up $13.3 million in costs.

The city expects to collect $24 million in property taxes for the last fiscal year. About $14.5 million were collected in sales tax. The mall generated $3.5 million in sales tax, about 25 percent of the total sales tax collected.

Vehicle and parking fines from last year totalled about $45,000.

Major capital improvements included the La Paz bridge and road widening, the Oso widening project and residential street resurfacing.

• La Paz widening: This project will add a third lane in each direction of La Paz between Chrisanta and Muirlands. That includes widening a portion of road over the railroad tracks. This project has cost the city a little over $2 million and is expected to cost nearly $8 million when it is done.
• Oso widening: Oso will be widened from six to eight lanes from I-5 to Country Club Drive. Construction of a widened Oso Parkway is expected to begin in Spring 2014. The widening has cost slightly over $2 million so far and is expected to cost a total of about $6.5 million when complete.
• Resurfacing: The city began the asphalt portion of repaving Mission Viejo roads in August as part of its annual resurfacing program. Streets east of Marguerite and Felipe and south of Oso began to be repaved in September. Streets that don't need to be repaved will get slurry seal this month. The cost of resurfacing is expected to be about $3.5 million.