Town’s Fiscal Year Ends With A $2.6 Million Surplus

By Steve Bigham

Finance Director Ben Spragg announced this week that Newtown finished with a $2.6 million surplus for the fiscal year that just ended June 30.

This compares to $2.5 million in surplus for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1999. Two years ago, the town’s surplus was $3.3 million.

“Last year it went down, this year it practically stayed the same so it seems to be leveling off,” Mr Spragg said Tuesday.

The $2.6 million surplus includes $1.2 million in excess revenue, most of which came in the form of taxes, Mr Spragg said.

The balance of the surplus – $1.4 million – is made up of unexpended appropriations, which includes unspent salaries from town positions that went unfilled – mainly in the highway and police departments. The bulk of the unexpended appropriations, about $1 million, is sewer debt that was scheduled to be paid for out of the budget. However, that became unnecessary as sewer users were able to make the debt payments.

Mr Spragg said the $2.6 million surplus will be used as revenue to offset taxes in the 2001-2002 municipal budget.