City Sewer Fund deficit continues to baloon

According to the latest financial report, the city of Portsmouth, Ohio’s Sewer Fund continues to spiral out of control with the latest deficit being $1,206,316. Portsmouth City Auditor Trent Williams gave a report to City Council Monday night, and, as expected, the city’s Sewer Fund continues to be one of the blights on an otherwise positive financial status. He said the projection is that the Sewer Fund will return to a positive balance in mid-2017. The other deficit fund is the Water Fund, which shows a current deficit of $185,707.

“The Water Department is in a slight deficit this period?” Portsmouth Mayor Jim Kalb asked.

“It’s up and down,” Williams said. “It’s not tremendous – $185,707.”

The Water fund in question is Fund 604, but City Manager Derek K. Allen said Fund 603 has a current balance of $947,000, and last year some money was moved from the Fund 603 over into the Water Fund.

The remainder of the city’s funds remain in the black. The General Fund is at $307,546; the Street Construction Maintenance and Repair Fund shows a balance of $297,845. The balance in the Sanitation Fund in April was at $616,306 and the Insurance Fund continues in the black to the tune of $429,032.

Williams said the General Fund income tax collections for the month of April were $990,635. That is up $9,597 over the same month last year bringing the cumulative total for the year to $558,105 over the same cumulative period last year.

The city is now able to calculate revenue collected from the additional 0.5 percent income tax increase, and the April numbers show the additional income was at $166,245.

“The total tax collections for the General Fund and Capital Improvement is $1,136,115, which is down $18,085,” Williams said. “but that’s $571,000 over last year at the same time.”

By Frank Lewis

[email protected]

Reach Frank Lewis at 740-353-3101, ext. 1928, or on Twitter @franklewis.

No posts to display