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Westchester finance director reports December shortfall tied to delayed property taxes, notes $1.4 million insurance refund
Summary
Finance staff reported December general-fund revenues of $2,688,000 and expenditures of $1,434,000, leaving a temporary deficit the village attributes to delayed property-tax distributions; officials also said the village received just over $1.4 million from its public-insurance risk-pool reserve, stabilizing cash balances.
Stefan, the village finance staff, told the board the village's December general-fund revenues were $2,688,000 and expenditures were $1,434,000, producing net expenditures of roughly $670,000. Stefan said the shortfall is "mainly attributable to the property taxes that have not yet been received due to a delay from the county."
He said the village expects to begin receiving those tax distributions in January and continue into February "as communicated to us from the county treasurer." Stefan added that the village received just over $1,400,000 as a refund from the village's member reserve balance in the public-insurance risk pool, which "has stabilized the sinking overall cash balance" caused by the tax delay. When trustees pressed staff about the size of the insurance payment, Stefan said the village had anticipated several hundred thousand dollars—"it was roughly going to be what they had told us was 500,000"—but received about $1.4 million and did not yet know why the amount differed.
Stefan also provided fund-level detail. He said utility-fund revenues for the year are $7,458,000 with expenses of $9,244,000, of which about $4,200,000 relates to infrastructure improvements and $1,730,000 to water purchased by the village. The motor-fuel tax fund had nearly $600,000 in revenue and $564,000 in expenditures, producing an excess of about $96,000. The hotel-motel fund had no tax collections in December and year-to-date total revenue of $89,000 with expenditures of $71,700. Stefan said principal and interest payments were made from debt-service funds in December, funded by pledged sales taxes and property taxes as described in the monthly report.
The report prompted questions from trustees about why the insurance refund was larger than expected; Stefan repeated that staff did not yet know what changed in the disbursement calculations but confirmed the funds are on the village's account.
The meeting record ends after a motion to adjourn was made and seconded; the transcript does not record a vote on adjournment or any other formal board votes during this portion of the meeting, and no further action on the finance report is recorded.
