Town is in good financial standing
Published on November 18th, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - Cautious optimism was the message that Town Accountant Ron Florino expressed to the Finance and Advisory Board on Monday night when detailing the Fiscal Year 1999 first quarter report.
Florino, who devised a system of reporting to the Finance and Advisory and Selectmen boards on a quarterly basis, unveiled the format to both in recent days and explained that the projections are on track, but fall short of last year's figures.
In particular, the town's revenues, while above estimate, are lower than Fiscal Year 98 figures. In the first quarter, Florino estimated revenues (money made at Unicorn Golf Course, the Stoneham arena and through taxes, among others) at $8,640,864. The actual figure came in at $8,864,619 - $223,755 above the estimate. In last year's first quarter, $8,204,055 was estimated while $8,819,929 was received by the town - $615,929 above the estimate.
"I feel pretty good," Florino said of the figures. "The numbers look fairly decent, but it's still too early to tell. It's only the first quarter."
He told the board that the town made approximately $1.3 million above its estimated revenues last year. Much of this money was used to offset prior year expenditures and in appropriations for articles passed at October's Special Town Meeting. Given this year's first quarter projections, it appears as if the town will have less money to spend next October for Special Town Meeting articles.
"Two hundred thousand dollars really isn't a lot when you're talking about a $40 million budget," Florino said. "What these (numbers) do for me is kind of raise a red flag."
He explained that one red flag which has been raised is in motor vehicle excise taxes. An estimate of $300,000 was budgeted by the town accountant while only $268,601 was brought in by taxpayers. One possible reason for the shortfall, Florino stated, was that the economy could be affecting automobile sales.
"Things like that, we're going to have to pay attention to. We have to look at the economy and maybe see that people won't be buying as many new cars," he said.
Another figure which has raised a serious amount of concern for the town is Boston Regional Medical Center's lack of payment on water and sewer bills. Florino said that the hospital owes the town approximately $500,000 for water and sewer services and is the main reason for the significant shortfall in both budgets in the FY 98 and FY 99 first quarter figures. The General Fund has been and would likely again cover the cost of this shortfall.
Comparison is the key when looking at the numbers, the town accountant stated. In order to get the full picture of where the town stands financially, figures from past years must be used.
"The numbers don't look as good as last year. These may be signs that things are beginning to slow down (economy-wise). Those are things we'll just have to wait and see."
The Finance and Advisory Board as well as the Board of Selectmen had requested a progress report from Florino a few months ago and both applauded the efforts that the town accountant has put forward to paint a bigger picture of the town's financial standing. In the future, such reports will be reviewed by both boards each quarter as a system of checks and balances.
"The history really isn't there yet," Florino said of this first of many quarterly reports. "The more history we get, the more accurate we can be.
"It's a little more work, but I think you need something like this so you can see a summary right there and pick out what you want to look at," he said. "The benefit is greater than the extra time I need to put into it."
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