HOULTON, Maine — Auditor Ron Smith had good news for the Houlton Town Council during its latest meeting on Monday evening.
Smith, a managing partner and certified public accountant at the Maine-based RHR Smith & Company, was present during the meeting to discuss the town’s financial state as it gears up for election and heads into the final quarter of fiscal year 2021.
“I’m pleased to say that financially, where we expect you to weigh in on December 31, 2021, is probably the best financial condition we’ve seen the town in, at least with my relationship with the town,” said Smith, who has audited the town in previous years. “So I think that’s great news for the town as it pertains to your business, what you do every day here for the citizens of the town.”
At the start of the fiscal year the town had an unassigned balance, or money which was not assigned to any particular spending, of $1.5 million, Smith said. Now, Houlton is on track to increase that number, with projections of an unassigned balance of somewhere around $1.8 million for the end of this year.
Smith told the council Houlton emerged relatively unscathed financially from impacts of the pandemic over the previous two years, unlike many municipalities along Maine’s coast that were more reliant on tourism and had to shut down services for some time.
Though government relief funds are also available to Houlton from the pandemic, Smith recommended that the town not use that money until a few years down the road.
“You were right where you told your constituents you would be where you expected to be,” he said. “I think that probably in 2022 and 2023, I think that’s a conversation for one of those years.”
When asked by Councilor Dennis Harmon about concerns regarding potential inflation, Smith said that upcoming stimulus money from government programs would help mitigate those issues. Rather, Smith said, the town should make sure it continues to spend within its limits.
“You can’t control inflation, but you can control your spending limits,” he said. “Your challenge is to take a look in the mirror as to what you look like now, [and] that should be something you look like two or three years from now.”
