City ends fiscal year with small surplus

The city finished the last budget year with a small surplus.
“We held the line” against spending for much of the year in order to prevent a deficit, Comptroller Glenn Klocko said Friday.
The fiscal year report, completed recently, determined that Bristol wound up with a $235,000 surplus on a $158 million budget.
That’s significantly tighter than in most years. Bristol typically has $1 million or more left over when it closes its books each year, Klocko said.
“We have one of the smaller ones in recent memory,” he said.
It doesn’t look like it’s going to be any easier this year, either.
Finance Chairman Rich Miecznikowski said Friday that he’s angling to hold the line again.
With the price of oil, food and other necessities rising, he said, “The people are really getting hammered.”
Klocko said that Mayor Art Ward told municipal departments to keep their budget requests for the coming fiscal year to no more than 3 to 5 percent increases, which will be tough for many since the city faces the same increases that residents are coping with.
The comptroller said that his office recognized months early that the budget could wind up in the red because of higher than expected costs.
As a result, he said, officials took steps to hike revenues and reject requests for new projects and equipment.
Klocko said that good management by his staff, particularly Assistant Comptroller Robin Manuele and David Bertnagle, the city’s budget chief, made the difference.
“It wasn’t business as usual,” Klocko said.
He said, too, that if the Board of Education hadn’t found ways to slice the special education deficit with extra money from other accounts, the city would have had a deficit. Klocko credited William Smyth, the assistant superintendent for business, with making it possible.
The city’s rainy day fund currently contains $17.3 million, a bit more than the 10 percent of the budget target established by the Board of Finance.
That money is generally tapped only for emergencies and one-time opportunities, Klocko said, but can also be used for payments that will ultimately be added to bond packages.
A good reserve fund, he said, is something that bond rating agencies consider as a sign of financial strength. It’s one reason Bristol has a AA rating from Standard & Poors, which helps it secure lower interest payments when it borrows for roads, schools and other projects.
The financial report also shows the city’s pension funds are in excellent shape.
As of June 30, the end of the fiscal year, the general city retirement fund had $170 million, which meant it had 136 percent of what it needs to pay anticipated bills in the future.
The firefighters’ retirement fund had $125 million in assets and only $59 million in anticipated liabilities. That means it has more than twice what actuaries expect it will need to pay retirees someday.
The police fund has $137 million and holds 186 percent of what it will likely need.
“That’s tremendous,” Klocko said. “Really tremendous.”
There are “no significant deficits” in any of the city’s special funds, Klocko said.
He said the tight surplus leaves less maneuvering room for future budgets because he could not “rat hole” any money in equipment accounts and other special funds that can be tapped some years to cover departmental needs.
“The money’s not there” this time around, he said.
Even so, Klocko said, “The bottom line is the city of Bristol’s finances are still very strong.”

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com