Reading City Council amends 2023 budget to correct imbalance in capital improvement fund

Michelle Lynch, Reading Eagle, Pa.
·2 min read

Mar. 6—City Council has amended the budget for the 2023 capital improvement fund, making 18 corrections to bring the fund into balance.

The corrections were needed to balance an overbudget of about $11 million.

Council in December approved a final budget of $100.7 million for 2023.

"It was discovered, as I've said, within the week of the budget passing and it's been remedied," said Jamar Kelly, deputy city managing director. "And that's all I have to say about that."

Kelly commented Monday at a City Council meeting during which the Rev. Evelyn Morrison, a city resident and community activist, asked for an explanation of the discrepancies.

Morrison said she met previously with Kelly, city Auditor Maria Rodriguez and city Comptroller Michael Oppenheimer about the matter.

"It all leads to the same thing," Morrison said, "that the budget of 2023 was voted on by City Council as a balanced budget. So that tells me that fiduciarily you believed that the budget was balanced, but we find that $11 million is out of kilter."

Morrison said the number of errors and significant discrepancy in the figures should have been caught in reviews before the budget was passed.

"That tells me that somebody's not reading," she said. "That tells me that somebody doesn't understand the budgetary process and they're not looking close enough in the accounting system."

Morrison said her primary concern was with errors in the amount budgeted for a consultant.

"I was so glad that Jamar and Maria and the comptroller Michael were able to be on your job," she said to council, "and be focused on the numbers and now bring it to you for the corrections."

Rodriguez said it is the administration's responsibility to present a balanced budget to council.

Rodriguez said she was already aware of the errors and had brought the issue to city administrators before meeting with Morrison.

No actual money was ever missing, misplaced or disbursed in error, Rodriguez stressed in an interview Tuesday.

Only the budget, an annual projection of expected expenditures and revenues, was affected, she explained.

"Budgets must be balanced," Rodriguez said, "meaning the total expected revenues must equal the total planned spending."

Council's correction Monday brought the two budgetary categories into balance, she said.