If there was any question from anyone in the public about the city’s fund balance, it was answered Monday night by Treasurer Keith McLiverty.
The fund balance is $1.5 million, McLiverty told the Board of Apportionment and Taxation. That’s a level McLiverty said is acceptable for the distressed economic times.
“We’re at a point where people don’t want to accept it or they don’t get it,” McLiverty told the board members during the treasurer’s report.
The topic came up at Monday’s meeting in response to questions raised by Democrat Rob Hyder in a citizen commentary in the Valley Independent Sentinel earlier this month.
Click here to read the original commentary by Hyder. Click here and here to read responses.
The fund balance will be updated at the meetings from now on, said Judith A. Szewczyk, chairwoman of the board.
That’s a first.
“We’ve never done that before, but because the fund balance seems to be the most fascinating topic in town,” she said, it will be done.
“So I said, at every tax board meeting, tell what the fund balance is,” Szewczyk said.
Hyder, who ran for Third Ward Aldermen in 2009, apparently was not at the meeting Monday night. Nobody spoke during the public portion of the meeting.
After Hyder’s first commentary on the topic, McLiverty visited him at his home to explain the fund balance.
McLiverty’s explanation — The fund balance, at $1.5 million, is considerably less than the estimated $5 million from five years ago. It is true it was higher a few years ago but there were things to pay for like a lawsuit settlement with the former downtown developer.
McLIBERTY SPEAKS
The fund balance is one of the factors that helps the city get a good bond rating. The bond rating is AA2, McLiverty said. Other factors looked at for the bond rating include the capital plan and the city’s wealth.
The better the bond rating, the lower the interest rate when the city needs to borrow money for projects like repairing roads, which are not paid for directly by a line item in the operating budget.
If the fund balance were far greater at a depressed economic time like this, it would not go over well, McLiverty said.
“If you had 15 percent in your fund balance with no intended use it would be easily categorized as excessive,” he said.
