Pandemic year finances reviewed
NORRISTOWN >> Maintaining a multimillion-dollar governmental budget throughout the COVID-19 pandemic was no easy feat, according to Montgomery County Chief Financial Officer Dean Dortone.
“I will say that this year has been a challenge in terms of the closeout of 2020 with all the new grant revenues that came in … the county transitioning into a new financial system,” Dortone said. “At the same time, we onboarded a new external auditor. It’s been a
lot of work for the controller’s office and for us as an organization.”
Dortone discussed the county finances during the June 3 Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting in Norristown.
In doing so, he presented some of the findings from 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
For the preliminary 2020 general fund, there was $477.1 million reported in revenue and $436.3 million in expenditures, Dortone said in his presentation.
The results of the past fiscal year, which are under audit, Dortone noted in his presentation “provide $40.8 million of revenue over expense,” and was “primarily the result of CARES Act funding reimbursing eligible general fund personnel expenditures contained in [the] 2020 budget.”
Some of the largest revenue factors came from real estate taxes and federal and state grants, while health and human services took up the majority of expenditures, according to the financial update presentation.
Dortone added that “overall fee revenue is down $3.2 million,” as illustrated in several categories including the sheriff’s department, clerk of courts and parking.
“This clearly shows that some of those areas that we were talking about previously did on an actual basis come in a lot lower than the budget had anticipated,” Dortone said.
However, Dortone appeared more optimistic when referencing an “overall stable budget trend” for the first quarter of 2021, which occurred from January to April.
While continuing reopening of the county’s
court system and offices had Dortone appearing hopeful of a positive trend, he emphasized that “Q2 will really tell the tale.”
Dortone said in his presentation that the county’s real estate assessment increased to 0.35 percent as compared to 2020’s report of 0.36 percent.
“So I think that we are trending in line with the budget, and I think we’re going to be able to ... catch up that’ll occur in the next six months and things should pan out the way we had expected,” Dortone said. “Both on the revenues side and the expenses side.”
Following the conclusion of his presentation, elected officials offered comments on the financial findings.
“You and your team have been nonstop at this,” Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Val Arkoosh told Dortone. “It was a constantly shifting situation because of the pandemic, and I just really appreciate and want to publicly acknowledge all the work that you all have done. This has not been easy.”
Arkoosh praised Dortone’s efforts in balancing the budgetary needs with services provided during the ongoing global public health crisis.
“Some departments obviously have been way behind in their revenue but
we’ve also gotten some funds through the CARES Act and other things that have helped to stabilize our situation ... your team has just been constantly at work trying to understand what’s coming in and what are the allowable uses of those funds, and making sure we have all the resources we need to serve our constituents here in the county,” Arkoosh said.
“Thank you so much for your work during this past very, very difficult year and I’m sure it doesn’t feel like it ever stopped because it didn’t ever stop,” she continued. “Hopefully our next year is going to be a little more straightforward, a little more back to normal and kind of our regular process. We certainly look forward to that.”
“We’re looking forward to that too,” Dortone replied.
Looking ahead to the 2022 budget cycle, Dortone anticipated departmental meetings would begin in June with informational sessions available in September and October. The 2022 budget and the 202226 capital improvement plan budget are slated to be distributed in November.
Following public hearings, the budget and capital improvement plan are expected to be adopted in December.