June 3, 2024 – Stafford, CT
As the fiscal year comes to a close, budgets are on everyone’s mind – or at least on the minds of the Board of Finance (BOF), First Selectman Bill Morrison, and Stafford’s Chief Financial Officer John Lund. While everyone is very cautious about putting the cart before the horse, there is some optimism that a few town departments may come in under budget.
You may recall that Morrison instituted a budget freeze after coming into office. At Monday’s BOF meeting, we also learned that Morrison asked all departments to cease making purchase orders as of May 17, 2024. This should mean that by July 31 all outstanding payables should be processed. This is all aimed at having a better understanding of where each department’s budget will end up at the end of the year – as well as making it possible for the town to get started on its annual audit. (The audits have been late for the past few years, which you can read more about here and here.)
As of about 10:30 a.m. on June 3, when the “Statement of Revenue and Expenditures” report was printed, several town departments were showing sizable unexpended budgets, but Lund was cautiously optimistic that three departments in particular could come in under budget by the end of the fiscal year.
I cannot stress enough how cautious Lund was about making any assumptions, but he still told the board that the building department, transfer station, and parks department could see some savings. As of the report’s printing, these were the unexpended budgets for each department:
Building department – $104,348.51
Transfer station – $165,186.03
Parks and recreation – $138,800.30
With two months left to go, those unexpended balances will keep decreasing, so the town will not save anywhere near as much as the current balances but could still ultimately come in under budget by some yet-to-be-determined amount.* Watch for more BOF coverage as the fiscal year closes out, and we all monitor the final budget totals.
*This sentence was added to clarify that these balances are not final and will continue to decrease.