Helping cash flow
Ballston Spa treasurer says finances are improving
Ballston Spa takes out another loan, says it might not need it.
The village has taken out another loan to ensure it meets its financial obligations through its fiscal year.
But Treasurer John Duffy said the village might not need to use all of the $500,000 revenue anticipation note from Adirondack Trust because the village’s finances have improved.
“We may need some of it for cash flow,” said Duffy, who came out of retirement to join the staff at village hall. “I don’t think we will need it all. It’s more or less to be ultra-conservative. There is no danger that it won’t be paid back ... The village is in better shape than it was last year.”
Last year, the village needed $600,000 in loans and raised taxes 17.5 percent, helping to ward off a 2017-2018 budget shortfall. The loan and tax increase was followed by a critical audit from the state comptroller’s office. The state slammed the village’s then-budget officer, Christopher Hickey, whom the comptroller said “could not be relied on to make financial decisions.”
It also criticized Republican Mayor John Romano and village Trustees Robert Cavanaugh and Stuart Hodsoll for knowing of Hickey’s shortcomings and doing nothing about it. The budget officer and his deputy resigned and none of the elected officials blamed in the audit are seeking re-election.
Duffy said the village is in much better shape than it was last year because of the revenue expectations. Water, sewer, sales and mortgage tax brought in more money than what was budgeted. Romano said it will end
its fiscal year with a balance of $250,000.
“I am happy to be able to put the truth out there,” Romano said in a prepared statement. “The village is doing the right things to resolve its accounting issues, and while doing so, to advise that our financial position is on the upswing.”
The loan was coupled with the hiring of an accounting firm, EFPR Group. The firm will close out four years of the village’s books, from 2015 to 2018, a task that was not completed by the last budget official. The firm will also file the required statements to the state comptroller’s office.
“We don’t know why it was never done,” Duffy said.
Duffy, a former business official with the Ballston Spa Central School District, who is earning $75,000 a year with the village, said he will concentrate on the current 2018-2019 fiscal year and preparing the 2019-2020 budget. Duffy, who would not commit to the length of his stay with the village, said he came on staff because of his working relationship with Larry Woolbright, who chaired the five-member citizen budget advisory committee.
Woolbright, the former chair of the school district’s Board of Education and its finance committee, said he asked Duffy to consider the job because the village was having difficulty finding a replacement for Hickey, who left in the wake of the critical October audit.
“I asked him as a personal favor,” said Woolbright who is also running on the Republican line as mayor. “I’m very pleased he agreed.”
Trustee Noah Shaw, who has been critical of village spending, said he too is happy that Duffy joined the village staff.
“I think he is going to do a great job,” Shaw said.
Shaw is also relieved an auditing firm has been hired. That was the first recommendation made by the citizen budget advisory committee’s last fall, but the hiring was delayed for reasons that Shaw said didn’t always make sense. He is now hopeful that the village will not continue to borrow.
“I hope that in the coming year’s budget we can properly anticipate this timing shortfall, and avoid the need for such a bridge loan in the future,” Shaw said.