Washington City Council Gets Good Financial News

Washington City Council received a draft report of their annual financial audit and it contained good news, considering the audit was for the year 2020. As expected, the audit showed decreases in both revenue and expenses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Councilman Joe Manning stated that early on in 2020 he had read financial outlooks that predicted that municipalities could have had revenue decreases of up to twenty percent. Revenues in Washington were down $2.5 million and expenses decreased by $1.4 million. Long term debt decreased by $1.5 million in 2020 with hopes of retiring that long term debt by 2026. The city will be receiving about $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds. Manning stated that those funds are strictly regulated and cannot be spent on just any project that comes up. Council will meet again on Thursday at 1:00 PM for their regular voting meeting.