Sussex increases fund balance despite pandemic

Sussex Borough saw a $59,000 increase in its fund balance over the last two years, despite shutdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, borough auditor Tom Ferry of Weilkotz & Co. told the council on Nov. 16.

Ferry said the borough brought in $4.8 million and spent $4.7 million in expenditures. This left the borough with a statutory excess of $161,000, which was put into fund balance.

However, he said, the borough council removed $145,000 to balance the 2021 budget, leaving Sussex with a $16,000 increase.

“That’s not too bad for being a year when we had Covid,” Ferry said.

Like most municipalities in New Jersey, Sussex Borough had municipal court deficits because court was not in session levying fines and fees during a portion of the pandemic. Revenue from parking meters was also limited.

“I’ve got parking authorities that had little or no income,” Ferry said. “So, again, that’s attributed to Covid.”

That was a revenue drop from 2019 when the borough had $5.1 million in revenue and almost $5 million in expenditures, leaving $188,000 for the fund balance. The borough balanced the budget by using $145,000 in fund balance that year as well, showing an increase of $43,000

The borough has seen decreases in collected taxes over the course of three years. Sussex had a 96.8 percent tax collection rate in 2018. The number dropped to 96 percent in 2019 and dipped below to 95.96 percent in 2020.

“This is a very important number because when we have to do our calculations for the Reserve for Uncollected Taxes, the lower the tax collection rate is, the more we have to put in the budget for Reserve for Uncollected Taxes,” Ferry said. “The Reserve for Uncollected Taxes is a state-required appropriation, and it’s because we are the collection agencies for the county and the two schools. We have to pay them 100 percent.”