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Purpose of Budget Review

The purpose of our budget review was to determine whether the significant revenue and expenditure projections in the Village’s tentative budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year are reasonable.

Background

The Village of Suffern, located in Rockland County, issued debt not to exceed $5 million to liquidate the accumulated deficits in the Village’s general, water, sewer and capital projects funds as of May 31, 2015. New York State Local Finance Law Section 10.10 requires local governments that have been authorized to issue obligations to fund operating deficits to submit their tentative budgets for the next fiscal year to the State Comptroller for review while the deficit obligations are outstanding.

Key Findings

• Significant revenue and expenditure estimates in the tentative budget are reasonable.
• The Village budgeted approximately $2.13 million in metered water revenue and $2.67 million in sewer rent revenue. However, based on collections of water and sewer rents in prior years, we estimate the total 2020-21 collections for water and sewer revenue will be approximately $1.94 million and $2.38 million, respectively, which is approximately $190,000 less than budgeted for water revenues and approximately $290,000 less than budgeted for sewer revenues.
• The tentative budget includes a tax levy of $12,426,613 which is $471,753 above the limit established by law.

Key Recommendation

• In adopting the 2020-21 budget, the Village Board should be mindful of the legal requirement to maintain the tax levy increase to no more than the tax levy limit as permitted by law, unless it properly overrides the tax levy limit.