Cambridge expected to end year with small surplus

Budget chair welcomes $211,100 for reserve fund

CAMBRIDGE — A surplus, even a relatively tiny one, is surely better than a deficit.

So Coun. Mike Mann, chair of Cambridge’s budget committee, is welcoming a projected year-end surplus of $211,100 in 2018 for tax-supported operations.

“I would much rather have a small surplus than a huge deficit and say, ‘Where does the money come from?’ ” Mann said on Friday.

“On the big scale of things, it’s not a lot of money.”

The $211,100 amounts to only about 0.2 per cent of the city’s gross tax-supported operating costs, according to a report to be presented to the city’s general committee on Tuesday night.

The report mentions $406,300 in savings, due mainly to miscellaneous accounting adjustments, that should have been recorded in 2017.

They were discovered in mid-2018, offset forecast overruns elsewhere and contributed to the $211,100 surplus.

And that estimated amount, if realized at the close of the 2018 fiscal year, will be transferred to the rate stabilization reserve fund.

The rate stabilization fund can be used by councillors to lessen the impact of a potential city tax hike.

A year ago, councillors resisted a proposal to take $800,000 out of reserves to lower taxes.

The budget came in with a 4.52 per cent increase or about $62 for the average household.

That was the city’s largest tax hike since 2001.

A year ago, a 5.5 per cent increase was in line for 2019.

Mann says a starting point for the 2019 budget has yet to be announced.

But he expects about $594,000 will be taken out of the rate stabilization fund to reduce the anticipated increase.

“Our taxpayer, our community, is at a tipping point when it comes to paying taxes,” Mann said.

“We’ve got to make a really concerted effort at bringing in the lowest possible rate.”

That goes for water and sewer rates, which went up 3.33 per cent or about $35 for the average household consumption in 2018.

The city is projecting a surplus of $752,000 for sewer operations and a $29,500 surplus in the water fund. If realized, those amounts would also go into water and sewer rate stabilization funds or capital reserve funds.

The sewer surplus is simply explained.

“Due to a lower than expected, or lower than projected, demand,” Mann said. “You have to make an educated estimate of what we’re going to use and, this year, we didn’t use that much.”

The first stop in the city’s budget road show is Jan. 21 at Preston Arena.