Supervisor: Audit shows $700K margin of town revenues over expenses in 2011

A newly completed audit shows that the town finished the year 2011 having spent $700,000 less than it received in revenues, Supervisor Jim Dougherty reported this week in an email to town officials.

“Congratulations and thank you to my budgeting colleagues and to each town department head and all your personnel,” the supervisor wrote. “This confirms that you did a wonderful, professional job in not only responsibly budgeting your department, but in performing within your budget.”

The extra revenues over expenses constitutes a “positive variance,” as auditors call it, over what the Town Board anticipated when it approved the 2011 budget in late 2010.

Mr. Dougherty wrote that he had met on Friday, October 5 with Jeff Davoli and Kevin Tyburski of the town’s auditing firm, AVZ, or Albrecht, Viggiano, Zureck and Company, PC. of Hauppauge, to review the draft audit. New York State requires all municipalities to conduct an independent audit of their financial status annually.

Total fund balances in 2011 rose by about $300,000 to more than $2.5 million, about 38 percent of town spending of $6.6 million — “an extraordinarily high comfort level,” Mr. Dougherty reported that Mr. Divoli had told him.

The final audit will be presented by AVZ officials to the Town Board at its Tuesday, October 23 work session, Mr. Dougherty said.