Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

With one month left in the fiscal year, Columbia property owners had paid 91.6% of the charges levied against them in the current town budget, Town Manager Rhett White reported recently to the aldermen.

Collections as of June 1 were $284,412, and the amount levied by the aldermen a year ago was $310,495.

White said payments at June 1, 2019 were 88.9% of the total charges for that year. He also indicated that payments through the end of May in 2016-18 ranged from 92% to 95% of total charges, essentially showing that 2019 fell behind and that 2020 came close to being within the normal range for this time of year.

White also indicated that General Fund revenues as of June 1 were 93% of the amount anticipated to be received for the entire fiscal year.

Another $80,000 is anticipated from the Water/Sewer management fee, White said, plus $34,000 reimbursement from FEMA on Hurricane Dorian expenses.

Expenditures from the General Fund amounted to 87% of the year’s budget total.

In the Water/Sewer Fund, revenues were 69% of budgeted total, and expenditures stood at 61%.

Revenues are down on account of the closure last December of the Tyrrell Prison Work Farm. Meanwhile, a huge payment check has yet to be written: $101,405 for sewer bond principal and interest for the year.