By:Beth Wallach
The village-s general fund, according to Oling, is in a healthy condition. He said the village-s general fund allows enough money for contingencies that may arise that are not accounted for in the budget. The unreserved fund balance of the fund is $1,837,172. Of that amount, $650,000 was allocated to the new June 1, 2004 fiscal year budget.
This is the largest fund balance in the last 15 years, said Michael Schussheim, the village-s comptroller. One reason why it grew, according to Schussheim, was the village-s allocation of approximately $500,000 from the settlement of lawsuits with the Town of Hempstead regarding sanitation disposal fees. As part of that $2 million kept by the village as part of the settlement, the Board of Trustees allocated money in various ways, including half a million dollars to remain in the general fund-s fund balance.
One reason Schussheim gave for the healthy state of fiscal affairs in the village included the continued growth in mortgage tax revenues, which exceeded $1 million for the first time. Another reason was the performance of building and alteration permits, which reaped a hefty $904,227 for village coffers.
Rockville Centre-s fiscal strength manifests itself in the credit rating it receives from Moody-s Investors Service and Standard & Poor-s. Moody-s has given Rockville Centre a AA three-rating, while S & P has assigned a rating of AA. Both ratings rank Rockville Centre among the most highly rated villages on Long Island.
Regarding the recent improprieties in the Roslyn school district, Oling said that a lack of an adequate paper trail and proper sign-offs on expenditures, contributed to millions of dollars that were siphoned off without being detected. In contrast, Oling credits the Rockville Centre Board of Trustees- practices as a prime force in the village-s fiscal health. Calling them overcautious, he said that their procedures were thorough and that Rockville Centre budgets are looked at on a daily basis. By closely scrutinizing the budget, the Board of Trustees would be alerted if the spending habits of the village changed.
For Deputy Mayor Wayne Lipton, part of the budgetary process is to track what has been authorized. I look for variances in budgets, said Lipton. Rockville Centre under promises and over performs on a consistent basis.
This year-s accounting practices were more stringent, in large measure, because of a new accounting pronouncement that has gone into effect. The Government Accounting Standards Board, referred to as GASB, issued pronouncement 34 which altered the way municipalities report their finances. Rockville Centre was required to adopt these changes for the fiscal year ending in May, 2004. The new pronouncement gave village officials and the auditors more work, since more extensive reporting of items were required than ever before.
