By CHRIS FROST
Eagle Times News Editor
NEWPORT NH — While the county’s complete financial picture isn’t available yet, some early indicators are looking good.
In his report to the Sullivan County Commissioners on Thursday, Nov. 2, County Manager Derek Ferland said the county will have a more complete look at revenue after Sunday, Dec. 17, but pointed out a few items, notably interest income.
“The interest income, year to date, we’ve already exceeded our budgetary goal,” he said. “Most of this is being earned from the construction project revenue — the bond and some of those other funds. Mentally, we’re trying to segregate the interest we’ve earned from our regular operating budget funds.”
“We should probably have around $1.2 million in interest by the end of the year,” he said. “We budgeted for $300,000 [through September, the first three months of the county’s fiscal year], but there is another $900,000 that was earned by project funding that needs to be reallocated back into capital reserves.”
He said the county shorted the pay-as-you-go program — $1million of nursing home project funding the Delegation decided to defer and replenish over a 3-year period — and the additional interest income will mitigate that shortage.
“As the year goes, it’s going to look great; projects are way over, and there is excess revenue, but it’s already been spoken for as part of our planning process,” he said.
The registry of deeds revenue has been better than expected, Ferland said, as the year-to-date total is $122,000 through September.
“October’s numbers, which are not reflected here, are surprisingly strong,” he said. “There is $43,000 for the month, which, for October, is unheard of. That means deeds are probably about halfway toward their fiscal year goal, and we’re only four months in, which is good news. We’re expecting a slowdown with interest rates being at 8 percent, so that’s cool.”
He noted that Sullivan County is also 15 percent ahead in its facilities revenue.
“We’re at $42,000 year-to-date, a combination of our first quarter at the biomass plant,” he said. “Even though the biomass has been offline, that check came in July, and it was from the previous quarter. There has been a lag because biomass has been offline.”
The biomass plant generates stream used for heating, hot water, cooking and laundry operations.
He noted that rent at Sullivan House, however, is behind as expected.
“We’re probably 6-7 in our census away from where we need to be,” he said. “The good news is that last year’s operating deficit is just about $100,000, and we did get all that rent money from the opioid grant; it arrived a couple of days ago. We have an account receivable for that last fiscal year, so that balanced the books for February 2023 for Sullivan House, so there was no taxpayer subsidy.”
Ferland said Sullivan House will have a deficit during this fiscal year.
“There’s no way we’re going to make up for where we are right now,” he said. “We’re going to use the (opioid) settlement money to balance the books this year. Ideally, in a few months, we’re going to have our monthly census to a point where we are breaking even.”
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