May 11, 2018 3 min read

A financial audit report presented to South Strabane Township supervisors Tuesday showed 2017 budgetary issues that the township wants to improve.

Steven Cypher, a certified public accountant based in Canonsburg, said the township’s fund balance at the end of last year was the lowest it’s been in five years, at $319,202. He said a township the size of South Strabane should try to maintain a fund balance of more than $500,000.

“We have money in the fund balance, but it isn’t sufficient for the size of the township that we are,” Cypher said during the presentation.

He said the major problem the township had last year was over-budgeting revenue by $361,516 and under-budgeting expenses by $334,625.

Last year, the township brought in about $5.3 million in revenue and spent about $5.8 million out of its general fund, decreasing the fund balance by $508,565.

“The fund balance is critically important,” Cypher said.

“The most important job is to make the township better tomorrow than it was today. The second most important job is to protect what you have.”

Township Manager Brandon Stanick said the county’s recent property reassessment contributed to the loss of tax revenue for 2017. He said the township did raise taxes for that year, but because it was a reassessment year, they were limited to 10 percent. For 2018, the township raised taxes by 33 percent.

“We had a revenue problem, not a spending problem,” he said after the presentation.

He also said over the past decade, the township has been fiscally conservative.

“The revenue problem is that taxes have remained flat for years here, and there have been no increases in real estate taxes or adjustments to anything,” he said.

Stanick said the township supervisors are going to focus over the next two years on improving financial management and “exploring revenue strategies” outside of real estate taxes to bring the township back to where it needs to be financially.

“We’re having a tough budget year,” Supervisor Robert Weber said. “We need some money in the bank.”

In other action Tuesday, the township announced it will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. May 22 on a conditional-use application for the construction of an office building on Fischer Road. The application was filed recently by G3 Holdings, LLC, which wants to build a one-story, 60,000-square-foot office building at 65 Fischer Road, property that’s currently owned by Bass Pro Shop and is in a C-3 commercial zone.

Stanick said G3 Holdings is the parent company of several subsidiaries, including Washington Penn Plastics. He said if the conditional use is approved, the company will still need to return to the township for approval of a land-development plan.