City expecting $13.75M surplus from 2019-20 fiscal year
Jeremy M. Lazarus | 9/17/2020, 6 p.m.
Worries that the pandemic would leave Richmond financially crippled are evaporating.
Mayor Levar M. Stoney announced Tuesday that updated information shows the city likely has finished the year with a $13.75 million surplus — nearly triple the $4.7 million surplus the mayor projected in mid-August.
“Our financial reporting continues to indicate that the city has weathered the economic impacts of this pandemic locally,” Mayor Stoney stated.
He noted the surplus — essentially unspent dollars from the 2019-20 fiscal year that ended June 30 — is derived from “fiscal responsibility and prudent management.”
That includes sharply reduced spending after the pandemic hit, financial documents indicate.
The projected $13.75 million surplus, which still needs confirmation from the city’s outside auditor, represents 1.8 percent of the city’s $750 million budget for the fiscal year.
Mayor Stoney stated that half of the unspent money, $6.75 million, would go into untouchable savings per City Council policy, with another 40 percent, or about $5.5 million, earmarked for the city’s maintenance reserve for the upkeep of buildings and other city property.
He stated he would recommend to the council that the remainder, around $1.7 million, be used to pay for a city equity study and for initiatives to address racial disparities in health and pay for post-employment benefits for city workers.
