Huntington’s General Fund Expenses in First Half of Fiscal 2011-2012 Have Drained Carry Over

For comparison, 49.56 of projected general fund expenditures, while revenue (excluding carry over contingencies) represent 46.46% of general fund projections.  (Two line items contain nearly $1 million dollars total. They are $458,000 reserved encumbrances and $519,000 for “unreserved miscellaneous.”  These would bring revenue up another 1%.)

Much of Huntington City Council and the Administration’s budget fix for the unexpected $4 million dollar (plus) pension fund contribution increase has not  yet taken place. For instance, the two $50.00 quarterly Municipal Service Fee surcharges will not be due until Feb. 3 and May 4.  Since payroll reductions reflection furloughs and reduction of Fire Department unscheduled overtime did not begin until early November. The line items reflect a number of retirement payouts from November and December 2011.

Departmentally, most ran ahead in expenditures  of the literal 50% of the year. Actually, the July 1, 2011-December 31, 2011 payroll reflected 14 of the fiscal year’s 26 pay periods. This brings the ‘payroll’ item to 54%.

Since the controversial fire department staffing reductions took effect in November, the department saves $14,000 weekly in unscheduled OT.  Despite those reductions, Fire and Police OT continue well ahead of even  54% of the year’s pay periods.

HFD has utilized 56.39% of payroll and 69.26 of OT. HFD has a little over $514,000 left for OT in the remaining six months   (pg. 3-0023).

The Huntington Police Department has utilized 53.51% of payroll and 61.39% of OT. HPD has about $300,000 left for OT in the remaining six months (pg. 3-0022).

Council and the Administration agreed to establish a separate line item for PAVING.  Mid-way in the fiscal year about 40% of approximately $1,010,000 in the fund has been allocated, leaving $606,583 for paving during the rest of the fiscal year.

Among potential cautions in the  budgetary line items (note: a department can move money within the department generally without separate approvals, unless the funds that would be shifted has already been designated by council/administration) that stress possible impending peril are:

BUILDING MAINTENANCE: There is only about $6,119 left for the final 180 days for salaries, 0.64 (cents) for OT, but has about $41,000 available for contractual services.

LEGAL: There is only about $21,495 left for payroll with nearly 80% already allocated. On CONTRACTED LEGAL SERVICES of about $161,000 appropriated only $7,683 remains and on CONTRACTUAL , this line item  appropriates $197,473 for the year and only $28,639 remains.

CIVIC ARENA:  $226,300 remains unencumbered of two line items that totaled $630,261.

ENGINEERING:  About 66.82% of payroll ($194,326) has been paid and/or encumbered and 63% of the allocated OT ($9,100) has been spent and/or encumbered.

INSURANCE:  Medical claims have consumed about 63% of the annual allocation leaving $637,745. Prescription claims are about 33% of the annual allocation leaving about $417,000. Retiree medical and prescription claims are 49% and 40% respectively.

B & O revenues are slightly ahead of projections (52.53%) and the Oil/Gas Severance Taxes are 93% of annual projections,  but that increase totals only roughly $10,000. December's total revenue was $1.512 million dollars.  With half the year completed, the city has collected $411,713 in past due property taxes, which is about $20,000 ahead of projections.  City Service Fee collections are running 47.85% of the projection and the Municipal Service Fee (prior to increase) has 42.4% of the annual projection collected.

(Editor's Note: The report is unaudited. HNN has used data as printed and, for instance, has not attempted any analysis other than attributing the data to a department and line item. Some variance can be anticipated , for instance, based on "seasonal" affective services i.e. Police usually have more OT in hot weather, No snow means less payroll for salt and snow clean up, etc.)