The District government will record a $321 million surplus for the 2013 fiscal year in its annual financial report thanks to higher revenues and lower agency expenses, according to city officials.

“The story is half of it’s revenue, half of it’s underspending,” says Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt.

$168 million of the surplus came from excess revenues, including $76 million in property taxes. $153 million of the surplus came through lower-than-expected expenses, including $82 million in special funds and $5 million in savings from a drop in children cared for by the Child and Family Services Agency. An expected drop in revenues from sequestration was mostly canceled out by a rise in private spending, according to officials.

But the hefty surplus doesn’t mean there’s a windfall to divvy up. Fifty-five percent of the surplus went to local reserves, 41 percent went to reserves for the District’s debt, and 4 percent went to other reserves. One of those was the $112.1 million emergency fund that funded the District during the government shutdown.

Vince Gray‘s expected to talk more about the report at 10 a.m. DeWitt, meanwhile, says he can’t stop reading the report.

“I keep looking at it and going, ‘Wow, this is nice,'” DeWitt says.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery