Politics & Government

Bloomingdale Council Tables $300K Emergency Appropriation

Council majority wants review by borough auditor before voting on resolution.

After a brief discussion about projected 2011 budget shortfalls, the decided to table a resolution for an emergency appropriation of $300,000 to pay bills on Tuesday until the borough auditor has a chance to look at financial documentation.

Borough Chief Financial Officer Donna Mollineaux came before the council and spoke about several areas in which the borough has already exhausted its budgeted money or will be close to exhausting budgeted money by year end.

"Right now we're pretty much out of money in engineering," Mollineaux said, explaining that if the borough engineer is asked to work on any projects that are non-capital items, the borough does not have the money to pay for the bills.

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Mollineaux also said the borough is "$8,000 in the hole" in the legal-other expenses line item, which includes arbitration. The borough will soon run out of money budgeted for Social Security, Mollineaux said, and has nearly run out of money for the year in the line item for gasoline.

She also said there is not enough money in the Animal Control line item and that the roads line item is running low, although if the department can hold on until Nov. 1, money can be transferred from the Buildings and Grounds section of the department to help pay for associated bills.

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The budget shortfalls total about $170,000, Mayor Jonathan Dunleavy said, although the resolution asked for $300,000. Dunleavy said this is because he projects other line items to potentially have shortfalls as well.

Dunleavy said if the council were to authorize an emergency appropriation, the borough would either have to bond the money or borrow the money for one year. If the council borrowed the money, the borough would be forced to automatically pay back the borrowed amount in the 2012 budget. This would result in a tax increase of about $60 per average assessed home.

Mollineaux said typically, municipalities are able to use surplus money to fund shortfalls to pay bills, but the borough did not leave any money in surplus for the 2011 budget.

"There is no place to take it from," she said.

Also Tuesday, the council authorized an emergency appropriation of $35,000 for the payment of severance obligations for a retired borough employee. Dunleavy said previously, the council had the option to spread the severance payment over two years with an additional $5,000 offered to the employee for allowing the borough to spread the money, but the council majority decided to eliminate that option this year.

Council President Linda Huntley said she would like to table the resolution for the $300,000 appropriation until the borough auditor can review the figures. The council will continue to discuss the emergency appropriation at its Oct. 11 meeting.


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