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Abbeville's finances holding steady through first half of 2020

For the past several years, Abbeville officials have made it a common practice to hold a meeting to review the city’s finances after the first six months of the year.
In 2020, the first half of the year has looked anything but common.
Still, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there are some aspects of the financial report that mirror past years. Steven Moosa, a CPA with Darnall, Sikes & Frederick, updated the City Council during a finance committee meeting on Aug. 4.
“We look at the first six months in a year,” Moosa said, “to get an idea of where we are running.”
Sales tax revenue is running a bit ahead of ‘19. When including the half-cent sales tax passed by voters in ‘19 to provide raises for employees, sales tax collection has totaled $2.47 million so far this year. That is ahead of the $2.1 million budgeted for the first half of this year. Take away the $706,000 the half-cent sales tax has generated for raises, and sales tax revenue is around $1.76 million.
“That is comparable to last year,” Moosa said. “We’re just over budget by about 2% from last year, not counting the new half-cent sales tax.
“Our sales tax revenue has stayed steady for the first six months of the year.”
The new tax has served its purpose well in covering raises given in January to members of the Abbeville Police Department, the Abbeville Fire Department and municipal employees. Of the nearly $800,000 brought in by the tax, going back to the fourth quarter of ‘19, the city has used $555,000 for raises and expenses related to those raises during the first half of this year.
“We have an excess of $244,000 in that fund,” Moosa said. “That was anticipated. We know over the years we will have raises and inflation. Costs will go up. We anticipated covering that for at least the first 15 years.
“It’s working out pretty close to what we projected.”
Other revenues have not quite met projections. Water revenue is at $929,377, against a budget of $937,500. However, it is up $27,000 versus the first six months of ‘19. Sewer revenues are around 1% under budget.
Electrical revenues have been most impacted. At $1,754,561 collected, electrical revenues are $270,439 less than what the city budgeted. That is also $121,010 short of what was collected during the first half of last year.
“Demand has been down,” Moosa said. “That has been a trend in the past four years. Our demand is down 11%, but our revenue is only down 6%. We have made adjustments.”
Moosa said electrical revenues will be closely monitored as the year progresses.
“Usually July and August are your hotter months,” Moosa said. “We should catch up a little bit. I’m not sure if we will catch up all the way.”
Moosa said with the way this year has brought so much uncertainty, the first half the of the year for Abbeville is not that bad.
“There were some pleasant surprises,” Moosa said. “Expenses have been held in check. Sales tax has been flat. We will continue to monitor that. Those are hard to predict. July was actually up, so we hope that continues.”
Mayor Mark Piazza said the city will continue to monitor spending.
“We have to monitor overtime and budget spending very, very closely,” Piazza said.
Councilman Francis Touchet Jr., who chairs the finance committee, could not attend the meeting on Aug. 4. He did say in a message prior to the meeting that the city will indeed keep a close eye on finances, and make proper adjustments where needed.
“We are needing to watch the next quarter,” Touchet said. “Sales tax may drop due to the uncertainty of school openings and unemployment amounts dropping. We can always cut back on projects for capital improvements but are obligated to employee raises.
“We as a team will monitor and get through this trying time.”

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