Kingston’s fiscal forecast more low than high

BY NANCY KELLY

Kings County Register

Nine months into its fiscal year, the Kingston village commission is projecting a mix of departmental surpluses and deficits associated with revenue and spending variances recorded so far.

Kingston’s clerk-treasurer Greg Towne is expecting the village will see an overall surplus of $3,500 in its general operations. On the revenue side, grants and donations are expected to show a favourable variance of $6,000 due to grants from organizations not budgeted and other anticipated grants coming in higher than expected. Slight gains, amounting to $1,900, will also be made on short-term investments held by the village.

This will be balanced by unfavourable variances for expenditures: $11,400 for crossing guard services and transfers to reserves to deal with the funding of capital equipment items. Towne is projecting lower-than-budgeted insurance costs, but says, due to increases in legal activities over the past year, legal fees are expected to be higher by $3,400. Operating costs for snow removal are projected lower than budget by close to $8,000. Towne cautions this item could be revised in the months ahead, depending on snowfall.

Sewer operations are expected to see an overall surplus of $2,100.

The same cannot be said for Kingston’s recreation fund, for which Towne is projecting a deficit of $22,000. The variance resuls from “an accumulation of different issues,” including the commission’s unbudgeted donation of $10,000 to Greenwood’s Arena Curling Partnership Project’s phase two study. He attributes the other $12,000 to recreation administration, namely wagets. “Annual budgets have been unchanged for the last three fiscal years and have not kept pace with wage adjustments, staffing levels and programming costs.”

In response to questions about the unexpected deficit from recreation committee chairman Lorne Reid, who appeared baffled by the situation, Towne noted staff will be “tracking expenses and reducing spending where possible to mitigate further impacts” on the fund’s year end position.

The recreation fund currently has an accumulated reserve balance of $74,000, which Towne says will feature in managing this deficit and future budgeting.