For the second consecutive year, the Vicksburg Housing Authority finished in the black.
VHA’s surplus for fiscal 2014 totaled $190,000 — a 32 percent increase over the $144,000 it cleared at the close of 2013.
The surplus, or “profit,” as VHA executive director Ben Washington calls it, is a big change from fiscal 2012 when the housing authority faced a more than $1 million “gap” between revenues and expenses and Washington filed a request with the Department of Housing and Urban Development for a $1.25 million administrative subsidy for fiscal 2013 to plug the hole.
Since then, Washington and the housing authority board have kept a tighter rein on costs. Although VHA’s $944,000 in administrative costs were 5 percent over fiscal 2013, operation and maintenance costs, which involve building repairs and maintenance work like painting and plumbing projects were $67,000 less than in 2013. Part of that drop was due to building upgrades and repair projects that began before and after Washington took over as executive director in 2012.
Also helping the bottom line was a $1.4 million administrative supplement from HUD, which was $97,000 more than 2013 and forms the bulk of the housing authority’s revenue.
VHA’s news is the latest in a trend of struggling city agencies ending the prior fiscal year with a surplus instead of finishing in the red and asking the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for financial help.
In October, the NRoute Board of Commissioners reported the city’s bus service ended fiscal 2014 with an $18,499.70 surplus, breaking a long string of years in which the transportation system had to scrape just to finish the year with a four-figure deficit. NRoute got a boost from the city at the close of fiscal 2013, when the Board of Mayor and Aldermen increased the city’s annual supplement for a then-cash strapped transit system from $125,000 to $200,000 for fiscal 2014, and provided cash and in-kind services totaling more than $70,000 to help NRoute avoid a projected $55,532 deficit at the close of fiscal 2013.
The city funds, coupled with route reductions and cuts made by the board in early 2013, enabled NRoute to finish fiscal 2013 in the black with a small surplus. The board has continued counting the pennies.
An even bigger success story is the Vicksburg Convention Center, which closed its 2014 fiscal year with a $7,010 surplus, the first in the convention center’s 17-year history. The surplus meant the city would not have to give the center a supplement, which at times totaled $400,000, to help it break even.
The center’s success was due to a combination of new leadership, a more aggressive marketing campaign to bring business to Vicksburg, a drop in expenses, and an increase in revenue from the 2 percent bed tax that forms the bulk of its revenue stream.
The convention center’s annual report showed the center’s income for the year from the programs at the center was $404,985, under its projected $456,543 in revenue, while expenses were $927,092, which was below the projected $943,543.
The center broke out of the financial hole with hotel tax revenue, which was $529,116, $42,116 more than the projected $487,000 for 2014.
The success of three local agencies in breaking a skid of economic setbacks is a good way to end the year, which is less than two months away from 2015. While there is no guarantee their financial success will continue, the practices that helped VHA, NRoute and the convention center move their financial fortunes from red to black are in place and their respective boards and directors will continue keeping their watch on finances.
And finishing in the black could get to be a habit.