Feared deficit fails to materialize
Comptroller estimates 2020 budget surplus of $18.2 million despite fiscal challenges connected to coronavirus pandemic
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Far from suffering the multimillion-dollar deficit feared at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ulster County now appears poised to close out 2020 with a substantial budget surplus.
County Comptroller March Gallagher said that as of this past Tuesday, the county was showing an $18.2 million surplus for last year.
“It’s a very wide swing from what we thought it would be,” Gallagher said. “There is a surplus (and) we didn’t spend the fund balance.”
County Finance Commissioner Burt Gulnick said his office is in the midst of closing out county’s financial books for 2020 and still must make several year-end adjustments that likely will reduce the surplus Gallagher expects. At the end of 2019, Gulnick’s office made 48 closing adjustments, in
cluding three that reduced the county’s bottom line by $6 million.
Still, he said, unlike late last year, when he predicted the county would suffer a multimillion-dollar budget deficit for 2020, he too now expects the county to end the year in the black.
“I do believe we will have a surplus,” Gulnick said.
Gulnick said the full picture of the county’s finances for 2020 will be known once his office completes the annual financial report to the state. That report must be filed no later than May 1.
Gallagher agreed the amount of the surplus might change, but she said the fact that the county will finish the year with a surplus at all is a far cry from what county officials were predicting throughout much of 2020.
In April 2020, Gulnick warned of a potential $34 million shortfall, predominantly due to an expected loss of sales tax as a result of the economic shutdown caused by the pandemic.
In December, Gulnick revised that prediction, saying the county was on track to see a much smaller budget deficit, but he disputed Gallagher’s contention at the time that the county would finish 2020 in a better position than in 2019, when it had a $7.9 million shortfall.
“It’s surprising,” Gulnick said of the county’s rosier financial outlook.
The two attributed the county’s improved financial condition in large part to sales tax revenues, which came in significantly higher than anticipated even while falling short of original budget predictions.
As late as December, Gulnick was warning of a $6 million shortfall in sales tax revenue, which is the county’s single largest revenue line, due to the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.
But in the end, sales tax revenues were only about $1.2 million less than the $128.5 million estimated in the 2020 budget.
The two also said efforts by County Executive Pat Ryan and the county Legislature to reduce spending, as well as unexpected federal aid, helped bolster the county’s coffers. Also, they said, threatened cuts to state aid that would have wreaked havoc on the county budget never materialized.