Credit: Jeff Bohen/LevittownNow
Bristol Township Manager Bill McCauley has been referred to as the “director of gloom and doom.”
At Thursday night’s council meeting, he was anything but.
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McCauley provided a financial report of 2013 to council saying the numbers were not final but have been reviewed by the auditors.
” I knew we had a good year in 2013,” but it actually was a “fantastic year,” he said, adding he would let the numbers speak for themselves.
Some of the highlight of the 2013 report included:
- Finished 2013 with $8,087.175 General Fund Surplus beating projection by approximately $4.7 million
- Revenue came in approximately $2.7 million higher than original 2013 adopted budget
- Expenses came in about $1.9 million lower than budget projection
- Unfunded Liabilities Reduced by $10.75 million
- All funds ended the year with surpluses
- Expenses came in about $1.9 million under budget
- 4 Council members took no salary, saving $14,000 Tax Dollars
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McCauley said the municipality was looking into the eyes if becoming a “financially distressed” township two years ago as he went through the slides of the presentation.
He said it was critical for the township to continue controlling expenses while maintaining the same level of service provision and the current tax rate for residents.
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McCauley also said continued investment in the infrastructure of the township will continue to bring businesses back to Bristol Township and facilitate job creation even though there is still a long way to go in with reducing more of the unfunded liabilities the township has.
2013 General Fund Revenues
- Earned Income Tax Collections (EITC) came in $804,734 over Budget and Property Taxes exceeded the Budget by $255,066.
- Real Estate Transfer Tax came in $239,115 over budget, Local Services Tax came in $95,260 over and Mercantile Tax exceeded budget by $81, 015.
- The ending balance in the Water Fund after the sale of the water system generated $551,531 to Fund balance.
McCauley said, “we thought we’d get a one year bump with Act 32.”He was referencing the EITC collections, adding, “we expected it to go down some last year but it did not.” He also noted that council’s policies and work at creating jobs are “paying dividends.”
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2013 General Fund Expenditures:
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Expenses came in $1,951,145 under budget while maintaining all levels of services provided to taxpayers.
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All departments came in under budget.
After the township manager’s presentation, Troy Brennan, council vice president, said a 568 percent increase in a fund in this day and age is next to impossible. He gave credit to McCauley as the “mastermind” for the work he’s done with resident’s of the township tax dollars.
