Members of the Board:
First, thank you to the Board Members who pressed the Administration to hold the line on property taxes this year. I have a pretty good idea of who you is, and who you isn’t.
Secondly, this is really not such a monumental feat, nor deserving of all the accolades that no doubt will be passed around to Dr. Steinhauer and his team. We have been over taxed for years and when you combine this with all the funds being generated from bond refinancing and other sources, the District remains in a very strong financial position. With the cash-on-hand, there is really no need to pad the surplus.
Please see the General Fund Budget summary attached. Since Dr. Steinhauer took the reins, the District has landed under the Expenditure Budget (excluding Transfers to Debt Service and the Capital Fund) by more than $7 million. The Revenue Budget has been essentially on the money.
Please note, the reason Debt Service and Capital Fund transfers are excluded from my analysis is that the Capital Fund transfers are made from available General Fund surplus and very often are not reflected in the approved budget number. Consequently, transfers may appear as a budget impairment, which could ultimately be misinterpreted as a “miss”.
Lastly, it sure would be nice going into finalizing the budget to know how the Administration forecasts the current year spend. We used to routinely see forecasts similar to the attached. Just because the Audit & Finance Committee was disbanded, there is no reason another outlet for the information could not be employed (like the website).
Fiscal transparency has been a general disappointment under the Steinhauer Administration.
Best regards,
Bill
cc: Mt. Lebanon Community
