Wheeling City Council OKs $273,000 Budget Revision
File Photo by Eric Ayres Trending
WHEELING - High fuel costs and a reduction in revenue from major construction work in town contributed to Wheeling officials’ action to approve another revision to the current fiscal year’s budget for the city.
In one of the final votes taken by Wheeling City Council before the end of 2022, members approved a resolution requesting a revision to the city’s general fund budget. The measure is the third budget revision approved by council during the 2022-23 fiscal year and is subject to authorization by the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office.
City Manager Robert Herron said the budget revision was needed in order to keep appropriated funds in line with budgeted fiscal obligations. He noted that a number of revenue line items are doing better than the city originally projected, while some revenue sources are diminishing.
"We have several categories that are running ahead this year," Herron said of city revenues. "We’re recommending - based on trends - the increase. We’re also beginning to address the B&O tax reduction that’s occurring as a result of the construction winding down on the freeway."
Officials have noted that the state’s major Interstate 70 Bridges project that has been ongoing for the past two years began to wind down this fall, resulting in reduced Business and Occupation Tax revenues that had been generated by that multi-million dollar highway investment.
Although B&O tax revenues from construction work in the city have been down, some other B&O tax revenues have been on the rise, as have other line items this fall. The latest budget revision reflects those revenue fluctuations, officials said.
"There’s proposed increases in revenue for gas and oil severance, utility and business B&O, sales tax, parking violations, vacant building registrations … and then there’s a proposed reduction of $264,000 for B&O tax thus far this year," Herron said.
Of the various proposed changes to the Fiscal 2022-23 general budget for the city, a major variable in expenses has been the high price of gas and other fuels used by the city.
"There are several proposed changes to the budget," Herron said. "The vast majority of that deals with where we are from a fuel perspective."
The budget revision’s projected adjustment to expenditures totals $273,000, officials said.
Herron noted that "$171,000 of that deals with anticipated fuel cost increases, as well as the $87,955 dump truck that council approved at the last council meeting."
Herron said he and Wheeling Finance Director Seth McIntyre have been monitoring the fluctuations in revenues since the fiscal year began.
"We’re well into the second quarter of our fiscal year, so we’re getting a pretty good picture of where we’re headed here," the city manager said.
At the end of November, the city’s cash standing was a "pretty strong" $4.2 million, Herron said during a review of the month-end financial statement.
"On the expenditure side, we’re in pretty good shape," Herron said. "Obviously, we can control expenses. We’ve got to keep an eye on revenues."
The recent adjustment to the city’s fiscal year budget was described as a step "in the right direction in making sure we stay on top of that," Herron said.
December marks the halfway point through the fiscal year, and officials are expected to review this month’s financial statement prior to the second Wheeling City Council meeting of the month later in January. Officials noted that from an overall revenue perspective, December is typically the second slowest month of the year, behind the slowest month of June.