ERIN – In the first three months of this year, the town spent 26 per cent of its operating budget, and 32% of its capital budget.
Town treasurer and finance director Wendy Parr presented a first quarter variance report at last month’s council meeting looking at the town’s spending until March 31 from a high level.
“This is the first time that a first quarter variance report has been prepared and presented to council,” Parr said.
The report compares what has been spent thus far against this year’s total budgeted spending to provide a look at how the town’s money is being spent.
Parr said the expectation for the first three months of the year is a 25% variance from budget, though that number will shift throughout the remaining quarters.
“There are some costs that are higher in the first quarter,” she told council, listing examples of winter staffing and salt/sand purchases.
Operating budget results were “mostly on target” with larger-than-expected variances observed for the town’s fire and planning departments. Of the fire department’s total $997,756 operating budget, 34.5% has already been spent.
A line item for “service agreements” within the fire department’s operating budget shows 88% of what’s budgeted for the year has already been spent.
That’s because the town paid its annual dispatch service fee in the first quarter, Parr noted.
Other notables include the high cost of natural gas; most of the winter control budget is spent; and a variance in the insurance category is high because a volunteer firefighter insurance premium was paid.
As for planning, 20% of the budget has been spent, with planning revenue under where Parr expects it will be in future months.
As for spending on capital projects such as equipment or roads, a total of $333,000 was spent from taxes, and around $1.5 million is yet to be incurred.
Reserves at the end of March were sitting at $63.5 million, of which $45.7 million was for the town’s new wastewater treatment system.
“The financial results for [Erin] is a deficit of approximately $256,000 for the first quarter,” Parr wrote in a July 13 report to council.
That number factors money coming in against what’s being spent.
Parr says a deficit in the first quarter is expected because revenue hasn’t had a chance to catch up.
The town closed the fourth quarter of 2022 with an operating budget surplus of $545,405. The cash was distributed this past June to the town’s tax stabilization, economic development, and heritage fund reserves.
