Archive: Around Town

The Lansing Fire District received high marks in an independent audit presented Tuesday to the Lansing Fire Commissioners.  Certified Management Accountant Lawrence Johnston, of the Sean Hucko, CPA firm, told the commissioners that their financial picture is quite rosy.

"I was looking these numbers over today," he said. "This is probably the best financial shape I have ever seen any Fire District in, and we do about 16 or 18 fire districts.  You certainly have a lot of cash.  And you have no debt.  You have almost $3.2 million available for various things."

Aside from physical assets like fire stations and trucks and equipment, the Fire District has about $1.5 million in assets (cash and investments).  Building and equipment reserves total over $8 million, bringing the District's total assets to $9,598,669.  Current reserves include a $2.4 million equipment reserve and about $480,000 for building projects.  On a profit and loss sheet for last year the District shows a $712,819.

"The $700,000 profit is not because we're really great," District Treasurer George Gesslein explained. "It's because we delayed spending on the heavy rescue vehicle until a year later, in January.  And we didn't do the construction on Station 3 until this year -- it's going to start in April.  So it looks like we saved a lot of money, but we rolled it over."

Lansing Fire Commissioners pride themselves on long term planning, wise budgeting, and collecting enough money to pay for projects and equipment in cash, to avoid paying extra in bond and loan interest.  Their 20 year plan targets the tax rate for each year and plans savings to purchase new fire trucks or conduct building projects over two decades in the future.  The plan is a living document that is constantly revised, often because the purchase of a new truck can be deferred for an extra year or because of adjustments to when tax rises are projected.  This year commissioners voted to hold the tax rate to $0.92 per $1,000 of taxable property value to contribute to its $1.4 million budget.

In 2013 the New York State Comptroller's office released an audit claiming the Lansing Fire District set unreasonable budget amounts between 2008 and 2012 that averaged $777,000 lower expenditures than appropriations from property taxes.  But fire commissioners said that while the Comptroller's numbers were accurate, the excess had to do with delays in construction.  Gesslein said at that time that the money was spent the following year when the projects were completed.

"You've taken measures to take care of that," Johnston said.  "That's the key - if you have a lot of money sitting out there, give them a plan for that money.  They don't like seeing money sitting there and tax levies being high.  If you've got a plan you have covered yourself."

The Fire District pays for the buildings and equipment the Lansing Volunteer Fire Department uses.  The department responds to approximately 900 emergency calls per year.  Volunteers have responded to 201 calls so far this year as of the end of March.

"You're in great financial shape," Johnston said. "I've looked at districts that have $8 to $10 million budgets and they have nothing like this. It's just phenomenal.  You guys are doing a great job here."

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