Bosque Farms budget change leads to new computer equipment

Bosque Farms

The Village of Bosque Farms Council unanimously passed its 2002-03 village budget Tuesday, but it was not a balanced budget, compared to the previous interim one sent to Santa Fe.

Village Administrator Jane Fritz discovered a discrepancy of $60,000 in anticipated water-billing revenue that was included in the previous budget.

“They over-figured last year what the water revenue would bring in,” said Mayor Roger Baldwin. “They missed it by $60,000 last year.”

The projected water revenue for the new village budget is $390,000, while last year’s figure was $450,000.

“The $450,000 was an over-stated figure,” Fritz said in an interview in her office on Wednesday.

It was a blow for village councilors, who attended six budget workshops and made thousands of dollars in cuts to the interim budget in order to balance it.

“I am very upset with the numbers that were provided,” said Councilor David Linthicum. “Now, we’re back to 60-to-70-thousand in the red, after how hard we’ve worked.”

“We’re all disappointed,” Baldwin said.

The 2002-03 budget projects $3,012,626 in expenses with revenue at $2,943,814. The State Depart-ment of Finance and Administration (DFA) requires municipalities to have 1/12 of the cash balance available, and that requirement was met.

After the council approved the budget, one resident asked if this meant that the village was going to spend more money than it had, and Fritz replied, “No.”

“Only the federal government can spend more money than it has,” Fritz said.

Fritz took over village administrator duties on June 3, and Baldwin praised her for her hard work on the budget, which included long weekend hours. Fritz termed the previous village financing method as outdated and said she hopes a new computer system will enable the village to better track its revenue and business transactions.

“It was an archaic system,” Fritz said. “Now, all the bank statements are balanced and everything is accounted for.”

On Aug. 20, Fritz plans to look at the first demonstration of a new computer system for the village.

“We just want to get the best we can for our money,” Fritz said. “My projection is that we will be on line by January 1.”