Some positives from Abbeville's first financial report of ‘21
Most of the first quarter of 2020 occurred prior to start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the full impact didn’t arrive until later in March.
With that said, comparing the first quarter of ‘20 to the first quarter of ‘21 shows some positives when looking at the City of Abbeville’s finances.
As its does after each quarter of the year, the Abbeville City Council heard a report on budget revenues and expenses. Steve Moosa of Darnall, Sikes & Frederick once again provided the report during a finance committee meeting last Tuesday.
“Remember, for the first quarter of last year,” Moosa said, “COVID hadn’t really struck yet.
“We will start seeing some of the effects next quarter.”
Sales tax collection has remained strong during the pandemic. That showed when comparing the first three months of ‘21 to the same time frame last year. During the first quarter of ‘21, Abbeville collected $1,237,995 in total sales tax. That is a 14%
increase ($172,574 positive variance) over the first quarter of ‘20. That is also nearly $50,000 more than what the city budgeted for this year. Moosa cited federal stimulus payments as having a positive effect.
“A lot of money came into the economy,” Moosa said. “People did what they were supposed to do with it; they spent it.
“With cautious optimism, we are ahead of budget there.”
Councilman Francis Touchet Jr., who chairs the finance committee, said that is a reason to be optimistic.
“It’s great that we are up in sales tax revenue,” Touchet said.
Other revenues, including water (up 6%), sewer (4.1%) and electric sales revenue (5.8%) are up when comparing the first quarters of ‘20 and ‘21. Kilowatt hours sold are also up 6.2%.
“From a revenue standpoint,” Moosa said, “the city is ahead of budget.”
Again, those numbers are likely to see an impact when compared to the months the pandemic began to take hold.
“There is a pretty significant decrease,” Mayor Mark Piazza said of later in ‘20. “Especially in electric revenues.”
The city may be able to cover some of those losses with funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The city is in line to receive more than $4 million from the plan.
“I have heard that revenue losses related to COVID are something you can use it on,” Moosa said. “They haven’t come out with clear regulations yet.
“Hopefully, they are going to give you a list of things you can spend it on soon.”
COVID is not the only thing that has had an impact. Hurricane Barry in ‘19 and last year’s two storms, Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta, did come with a cost to the city. Among the three storms, the city submitted more than $1.3 million in expenditures to FEMA.
“FEMA, historically, will reimburse up to 75% of the cost,” Moosa said. “It could be more.”
As of Dec. 31, 2020, the city had received $45,282 for Barry. The amount received from FEMA during the first quarter of ‘21 totaled $81,089, including 28,088 for Barry and $53,001 for Laura.
“Things move slowly,” Moosa said.
In all, Piazza said there are some positive aspects from the first-quarter report.
“There are certainly highlights and good news,” Piazza said. “Sales tax being up is always a real positive thing. It shows that our businesses are doing well. I think all departments, across the board, when you look at payroll and overtime, are doing their jobs with due diligence.”
