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Bronxville Has Unexpected Budget Windfall

BRONXVILLE, N.Y. – Bronxville trustees got an early holiday present at the village board meeting on Monday night—a renewed AAA bond rating and a surplus in their budget.

Independent auditor Alan Kassay, of the accounting firm O'Connor, Davies, Munns and Dobbins, attended the board meeting to present the result of an audit of the 2010-11 operating budget, which closed out this past June.

Kassay explained that Bob Fels, village treasurer, anticipated $12.3 million in revenue to the village for that budget year. But, thanks to windfalls consisting of uncollected bail money, larger than expected permit fees and a federal grant, the village wound up with $12.9 million in revenue with another $554,000 in additional funds.

On the spending side, Fels planned on paying out $10.9 million in expenditures, but the actual operations budget only spent $10.4 million and left $575,000 in village funds. The bottom line was a windfall of $1.1 million.

"At the beginning of the budget year, we had a fund balance of $1.6 million," Fels said. "Now, we are going to go into next year's budget with $2.1 million in the fund balance."

Trustee Robert Underhill praised the budget. "This is great news," he said. "We are going to be able to borrow money at a lower rate. This is a well prepared budget."

But Fels said he creates plans on spending more and collecting less every year.

"I want fund money in the budget," Fels explained. "That is what gets us through the bad times."

Mayor Mary Marvin said the board will start reviewing the new budget shortly after the beginning of the new year.

"We are going to begin meeting with the finance committee in early January," Marvin said. "We will have hard work ahead."

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