Kennett Township residents can get an initial look at the township’s financial picture for 2020, thanks to a preliminary year-to-date financial report presented at Wednesday’s meeting.
The report can be found on the township’s website in the June 3 board agenda.
Township Finance Director Amy Heinrich said the report, which looks at things like the fund balances and the year-to-date revenue expenses vs. the budget, will be updated and improved monthly.
“I think a lot of people have been looking for that and waiting for that,” she said during Wednesday’s Zoom meeting. “It’s been quite a challenge with the state of systems and affairs and staffing and vacancies and turnover and training. But we’re getting there.”
Last year at this time, former township Manager Lisa Moore was being investigated for allegedly embezzling more than $3 million from the township’s finances, and supervisors were learning that the township’s financial situation was nothing like what they thought it was.
This year’s preliminary financial report is part of an ongoing effort to give a clearer financial picture.
Supervisor Scudder Stevens thanked Heinrich for “the progress you’re making in this rat’s nest that we all inherited.
“Your and Eden’s professionalism, as kicked off by Alison a year ago, has allowed this to begin to come together in a way that should bring comfort to the township citizens,” Stevens added, referencing current township Manager Eden Ratliff and interim township Manager Alison Rudolf.
Supervisors’ Chairman Richard Leff said things like the financial report “will be good tools for us to be able to figure out what to do with 2021.”
The preliminary financial report shows, for instance, that earned income tax revenue has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The deadlines for filing were delayed, so we don’t know what that will turn into,” she said. “We know that people can file later, and they can pay their taxes later. When it comes to that time, we don’t know if they’ll be able to afford the taxes that are due. As we move on and there’s unemployment, that will impact earned income.”
Earned income taxes were budgeted at $2.84 million for 2020. As of May 28, according to the financial report, $1.075 million has been collected. Real estate and transfer taxes are close to the budgeted amount.
About Monica Fragale
Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.
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