EBENSBURG —
Cambria County ended up in the black again in 2009, the fifth time in six years, the commissioners said Wednesday.
Cambria had a cash surplus of $116,267 last year in the general fund, according to the annual audit that was just completed by Wessel & Co., a Johnstown accounting firm.
In addition, the audit revealed that Cambria County has a $6.1 million unreserved fund balance – a turnaround from 2003, when there was a $5.6 million negative fund balance, it was reported.
“That fund balance is not cash, but an accounting mechanism to reflect financial stability,” President Commissioner P. J. Stevens said. “It demonstrates the financial health of the county” after all the books have been reviewed.
The fund takes into consideration such things as cash receivables – money not yet received – and payables - bills to be paid by the county, said Mike Gelles, chief clerk and finance director.
Cambria will be using the latest audit in its renewed effort this summer to obtain an improved bond rating that would be more attractive to investors and that could produce sizable savings in a bond refinancing.
Cambria’s bond rating has been at BB since 2005, a slight improvement from the previous B rating but still considered a non-investment grade.
Cambria had been on a “credit watch” since 2003 by Standard & Poor’s, a New York credit-rating service, but the county was upgraded to what was termed a stable outlook with the BB rating in 2005.
Stevens termed the $116,267 cash surplus in the general fund as “whisker thin,” but said it shows that the county’s budget “is not overexaggerated in revenues or understated in expenses.”
He, along with Commissioner Milan Gjurich and county Controller Ed Cernic Jr., said that financial improvements reflect the budget reviews the controller and three commissioners have been holding.
Every two weeks, “we look at the cash in the general fund and what bills are paid. The open lines of communications helped,” Gjurich said.
Cernic recalled that the review sessions were started after the decision by the commissioners in June 2009 to put Laurel Crest up for sale.
There were “a lot of uncertainties” after the sale, including then-unknown numbers of how many of the Laurel Crest workers would be going into retirement and how many would be filing for unemployment benefits, he said.
Starting in 2004 – when Stevens and Gjurich took office along with former Commissioner Bill Harris – there has been a surplus every year except in 2006, when losses stood at $1 million.
Balance sheet
Cambria County surpluses/ deficits:
2004: +$2,811
2005 : +$79,916
2006 : -$1 million
2007: +$362,180
2008: +$141,048
2009: +$116,267
Source: Mike Gelles, Cambria County chief clerk
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