Borough Receives Financial Health Update

The West Chester Citizens Financial Advisory Committee gave their final report in front of borough council on Tuesday night arguing that the borough must take steps now to avoid future financial problems. 

“Our expenses are not going to change,” said West Chester Borough Council President Holly Brown.  “We need to come up with a plan for our financial future instead of just reacting.”

According to the financial advisory committee, borough revenues will remain relatively flat over the next several years while expenses will continue to grow.

The committee suggested during a presentation that the borough would have to find revenue increases or savings totaling around $2.5 million per year in order to keep pace with exploding expenses.

The committee also argued that a sustainable operating budget for the borough would be at around $16 million.  For the past several years the borough has seen budgets exceeding $17 million with that number expected to grow.

In order to bring down costs the committee made several recommendations including a hiring freeze, outsourcing of services and eliminating all future building projects.

President Brown suggested that each borough department chair sit down with their respective committee chair and a member of the advisory committee in order to hammer out a plan for sustainability.

“For the last couple of years we’ve had department heads come in front of our committees, and we’ve asked them what we can cut.  What roads can we not pave, or what cars do we not need to buy,” Brown said.  “We need to come up with a plan for the next two or three years.”

Brown added, “There will be some pain involved because we might need to cut services.  We are very spoiled in this borough.”

According to the committee, borough residents have many more services provided to them by the borough then the surrounding municipalities, but they also pay some of the highest taxes for those services. 

The borough also has the highest amount of debt per resident when compared to other municipalities.

The committee recommended that the borough pay off some of that debt before undergoing any new construction projects.  Along those same lines, the committee recommended that the borough replenish its capital reserve fund.

The borough had been using the capital reserve fund to close budget gaps, but the committee warned that continuing this practice could hurt the borough’s credit rating.

“We all agree that our expenses don’t match our revenues,” Brown said.  “We must take steps to fix it.”