PROVIDENCE – The city has reported its second consecutive operating surplus, a $10.2 million amount that will allow it to create a true rainy day fund for unexpected expenses for the first time in six years.
At the close of the fiscal year, on June 30, the city had an unaudited, year-end operating surplus of $10,206,604, reported the Office of Mayor Jorge O. Elorza.
“This is a good day for the city of Providence,” he said in a news release.
The surplus means the city will eliminate a cumulative deficit that it had been chipping away at for several years.
The surplus will be divided between $3,158,000 heading to final deficit reduction, with the remainder to a rainy day reserve. This will leave $7,048,604 in reserve, subject to an as-yet finished, year-end audit.
Elorza attributed the surplus to factors such as new budget practices, savings from earlier pension payments, more-robust tax collections, lower salary expenditures and improved department revenues.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at MacDonald@PBN.com. Follow on Twitter at @MaryF_MacDonald.
