Budget Variance
Definition: The difference (measured in percentage terms) between the actual net operating expenses and the budget.
Performance (April 2025):
The budget variance for the month of April was unfavorable at 15.63% over the forecast, mostly due to unfavorable variances in labor and contractual services costs. The 2025 Fiscal Year-to-Date (months of July through April) budget variance was unfavorable at 14.39% over the forecast, mostly due to unfavorable variances in labor and liability costs.
Note: In April 2025, we revised the budget variance formula in this report to match other Finance reporting. The calculation previously showed a positive value when over-budget and negative when under-budget. With this revision, values that are over-budget will be negative (i.e., unfavorable) and under-budget will be positive (i.e., favorable). This inversion is the only change, and it matches the calculation to other public financial reporting at MARTA. It will apply to historical and current values.