Allentown City committee reviews monthly finances, asks staff for senior-rebate usage data

Mister Napoli, a member of the Allentown City Budget & Finance Committee, opened the May 30 meeting and asked Miss Patel to present the monthly budget and finance report.

Miss Patel, identified in the meeting as finance staff, told the committee the city's adjusted general fund budget is $152,000,000 and that general fund revenues through April 30 were running at about 49% of the budget while expenditures were at about 27%.

The report included line-by-line updates on enterprise and special funds. Miss Patel said the risk fund showed stronger revenues (about 6% higher) and reported a balance of about $10,800,000 with expenditures running roughly 33% higher than the comparable prior period. Solid waste revenues were reported as roughly 78% of expectations and expenditures under budget by about 6% compared with the prior year; stormwater revenues were about 72% with expenditures at about 22% of budget. Golf revenues were early in the season at about 20% ($544,000) with expenditures roughly $780,000 and showing about a 10% savings. The rental unit fund revenues were about 26% with expenditures lower by about 3% (about $869,000). A new building code fund for 2025 was reported at roughly 27% of budget for revenues ($718,000) and 26% for expenditures ($738,000).

On investments, Miss Patel reported the city's cash position at April 30 was about $68 million. She said about $5.2 million was held in a prime/money-market account yielding about 4.41% APY and an additional $8.7 million was held at TD Bank yielding about 3.75% APY. She also said the city has term investments that mature between June and November and listed each investment's amount, maturity date and APY in the materials provided to the committee.

Miss Patel reported the city's remaining federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) cash balance was about $18.4 million, mostly invested with the same investment vehicle cited above, and that a small amount (about $13,000) was held at TD Bank.

Committee members asked for more detail on several items. Mister Napoli asked how business privilege tax collections compared with prior years; Miss Patel said collections were “pretty much in line,” at about 77% of the budgeted amount (about $9.8 million). The city controller (unnamed in the transcript) agreed the financials were generally on track but cautioned it remained early to finalize a forecast and said the pattern should be clearer by July.

The controller also noted that the inspection/building-code fund shows a negative fund balance at present because it is new and has not yet built reserves, and that rental-license collections were at a historically low level of outstanding accounts following staff efforts to bill and collect licenses and penalties.

On a related item, Napoli asked for usage data on a senior citizen rebate tied to the trash contract. Miss Patel and the controller said the city would provide available data but that full-year rebate analysis depends on tax filing information: the senior rebate evaluation relies in part on current-year tax filings, which are not fully available until the following year. Committee staff said an intern project is reviewing the refund and rebate process and that results would be reported back to the committee in August.

There were no formal votes or motions recorded in the transcript. The committee adjourned after the finance report and follow-up requests.

Ending: The committee asked staff to return with the rebate/refund review and utilization data in August; no budget decisions or ordinance changes were adopted at the May 30 meeting.