The City of Merritt is starting this year on the right foot according to the 2017 audited financial statement.

Community investment

The report — presented by Certified Public Accountant Mario Piroddi at the regular city council meeting on April 17 — highlighted the City’s contribution of 52 million into the community.

“This is the wealth that you have in your community,” Piroddi said. “$52 million dollars — that’s your investment in your community in your buildings, your roads, your infrastructure, your equipment.”

Expenses

Total expenses for 2017 came in at $14 million versus a budget of $15.8 [million], according to Piroddi. He noted the city was slightly under-budget in pretty much all areas.

“Some of it was cost-savings, some of it was staffing, some of it was delays to projects being completed, so there wasn’t any real significant item where you were under budget or anything came over,” he said. “It was just the circumstances of the year, the staffing levels, and management levels choosing to save and not just spend to meet budget where there was opportunity.”

Management was able to take 6.7 million in excess cash flow from previous years and invest it with Municipal Finance Authority, generating some revenue for the community, explained Piroddi.

Debt

Piroddi added the city’s long-term debt with Municipal Finance Authority is “in line with expectations” at $7.4 Million.

He noted the number may seem large, but is well below the B.C. average at $1,039 per capita.

“Generally, the BC average for that was north of $1,100 to $1,200,” he said. “So you’re actually below what the previous average was.”

He noted Merritt, being a stand-alone community, is expected to have a debt load to the provincial average, because the city doesn’t have as many shared services as those found in areas such as Metro Vancouver and Kelowna.

Revenue

Looking the City’s overall revenue, Piroddi said they’re sitting at a surplus of $3.7 million.

“Revenues came in at $19.1 million versus a budget of $23.9 [million],” he said, adding that nearly half of that amount is dependant on property taxation.

“We see that your government grants budget was significantly higher — you came $5.5 million under budget. But it was a difficult construction year — some projects didn’t complete because of weather. When projects don’t complete, the money doesn’t come in to complete these projects from senior levels of government. That will be made this year, so there’s no cause for alarm,” he said.

Coun. Linda Brown shared her satisfaction with the City’s financial progress.

“Kudos to our management staff for cleaning up a number of years of stuff that had to be cleaned up,” she said. “I think perhaps our next year we’ll be moving forward to really being able to analyze and getting some in-depth into the accounts and actually do something great — at least that’s my expectation.”