Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — In the short term, the city’s balance sheet improved in August. But overtime costs continue to rise and $10.6 million in combined pension and debt service payments are due by the end of the year.
The draft financial report for August posted a fund balance of $9.4 million, an increase of $1 million from July. Revenues through eight months of the year reached $33.5 million compared to $24.1 million in expenses. The city is operating on a $47.1 million balanced, general fund budget this year.
Mayor Tony George said Thursday he had not reviewed the report. In the past, he warned of a deficit due to more than $1 million in unbudgeted expenses for the cleanup after the March blizzard and the unsuccessful attempts to secure federal reimbursement for some of the costs of hiring private contractors to clear city streets.
The city has been participating in the state’s Early Intervention Program for municipalities on the verge of financial collapse. With the help of a consultant, it has been developing a strategy for recovery.
The two largest revenue sources are close to their budgeted amounts with four months to go, according to the draft report. The city collected nearly 96 percent, or $11.2 million, of the $11.7 million property-tax line item. Earned income tax collections reached $9.5 million, or approximately 75 percent of the $12.7 million budgeted.
Still outstanding is a $3 million Tax Anticipation Note taken out in January to carry the city through the lean months in the beginning of the year. The city paid about $2 million of its $5.2 million budgeted for long-term debt service, leaving a balance due of $3.2 million, according to the draft report. Combined fire pension costs totalled $1.9 million while the costs for police pensions was $2.4 million.
The balanced budget included overtime costs. But the draft report listed several departments that exceeded their limits with four months still to go in the fiscal year:
• Police patrol division: $104,329, or 104 percent of $100,000 budgeted
• Police special detail services: $16,327 or 816 percent of $2,000 budgeted
• Firefighting: $29,952 or 149 percent of $20,000 budgeted
• Paved streets: $2,420 or 242 percent of $1,000 budgeted
• Waste collection: $73,870 or 184 percent of $40,000 budgeted
• Waste collection special events: $18,715 or 187 percent of $10,000 budgeted
• Waste collection doubletime: $4,318 or 215 percent of $2,000 budgeted
• Waste collection special events doubletime: $14,711 or 210 percent of $7,000 budgeted.