Manchester Gets High Marks In Audit

Manchester Town Hall (Photo by Micromedia Publications)

  MANCHESTER – An auditor had nothing but good things to say about the state of the township’s finances during a recent Township Council meeting.

  Every year, every municipality has an outside vendor perform an audit of their finances to determine what could be improved. In 2020, they are reviewing 2019’s finances.

  For the second year in a row, the auditors had no recommendations for the township, said Andrew Zabiega, who presented the audit’s findings.

  Manchester has $19 million in debt. This sounds like a large amount, but the state allows them to have as much as $117 million in debt.

  Township officials agreed that they did not want $117 million in debt.

  Recently, officials were able to refinance some of the bonds that they owed, cutting between $300,000 and $400,000 in the amount owed, Zabiega said.

  “You’ve been very frugal with your debt,” he said.

  The surplus is up by $30,000. Every town has a surplus fund. This gets dipped into for emergencies. The fact that it went up a little bit means that the township was able to replenish anything that was spent, and then add a little more of a cushion for the future.

  The township has a tax collection rate of 98.5%, he said.

  This means that 98.5% of residents paid their taxes on time. The other 1.5% did not. A town will set aside funds to make up for this. That fund balance is called the reserve for uncollected taxes.

  “The departments went above and beyond getting documents for the audit” because, due to COVID-19, visitation to the municipal building was limited, he said.

  Council President Sam Fusaro noted another figure in the audit – the amount of money the township received in grants in 2019 increased by 50 percent over 2018. This is because they have contracted with a business to look for grants for the town.

  There was also $1.5 million in the sales of township assets, he said. This happens when a town owns land that usually can’t be built upon. They will sell it to a neighboring landowner. That landowner will increase the size of their own property, but won’t be able to build on it either. Selling the property is a one-time revenue source. However, collecting a little bit more in property taxes on that land, because it is now owned by a resident, would go on indefinitely.