• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

City of Helena’s mid-year revenue falls behind projections | Local

Halfway through the 2022 fiscal year, the city of Helena’s revenues are about 58% below initial projections for this time of year.

Expenses are also down, however, and Helena Finance Director Sheila Danielson recently told the city commission that the city has only spent about 35% of the amount projected for this time of year. 

Danielson said the lagging revenue is largely due to the timing of local tax collections, which are paid to the city over the course of the year. She also said the city has yet to take out loans for some major projects.  

The city’s investment revenue is also considerably lagging behind projections at merely 4% of the amount projected.

“Even with treasury rates starting to increase, we are not expected to meet our investment income target this fiscal year,” Danielson wrote in a staff memo.

The finance director position was vacant for about a year before Danielson started in December 2020. City Manager Rachel Harlow-Schalk said that vacancy paired with severely outdated accounting software has made getting the city’s financial house in order an uphill battle, but that Danielson’s expertise will get the city to a place of financial resiliency.

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“Each department has been really narrowing in on how we can do the work efficiently without increasing fees and dollars,” Harlow-Schalk said. “We really have to rightsize this budget, and (Danielson is) the right person to help us.”

During a presentation Wednesday, Danielson said the staff will be keeping a close eye in the second half of the year on the incoming tax revenue payments, intergovernmental revenue and the city funds that have historically required significant general fund contributions to remain afloat, such as the funds for the Bill Roberts Municipal Golf Course restaurant (Muni’s) and the Helena Civic Center.

Danielson reminded the city commissioners that the golf course recently hired an operations manager and noted that the civic center recently received more than $300,000 in COVID-19 pandemic-related aid from the state.

“As bleak as it appears on paper, this was probably the most conservative of budgets passed last year,” Harlow-Schalk said.

Harlow-Schalk said that under her direction, the city has begun to implement policies to shore up its financial practices, including a new policy intended to update general fund subsidies to other funds and regular financial data reporting, which she said was not happening prior to her arrival in October 2020. 

“Remember, there was no finance director for almost a year when (Danielson) got here,” she said. “So, between the two of us, we’ve had to tag team best practices to move as efficiently as possible those areas that are so far behind.”

Staff’s hope is that the greater attention paid to the city’s finance policies now will make for smoother sailing in the future.

“This year is going to be the year of the hard work. Now that we’re getting our fingers on what the cadence is in the community on revenue and spending and then also operations, what is it that we really need to be focusing in on by way of administering these dollars efficiently and projecting more accurately,” she said.

The presentation is available to the public on the city’s website.

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