Long Beach, N.Y. has started the new fiscal year with a $7.8 million capital budget. This fiscal plan does not address the damage in the coastal city from Hurricane Sandy.
Long Beach has been struggling financially since at least 2011, when Moody’s Investors Service downgraded it to Baa3 from A1. Hurricane damage in October to the city’s infrastructure and private property compounded the difficulties.
However, the city expects federal grants to cover 90% of its storm-related expenses. Because of city government measures to bring its financial house in order, Moody’s has removed it from a review for a downgrade.
Of the current fiscal year’s capital budget, $5.03 million will be city funded and $2.73 million will be non-city funded. The city funding will come mainly from the sale of bonds. The non-city funding will come from a variety of sources including federal grants.
The plan includes $6.73 million in capital spending for the general fund in the 2013 fiscal year, which started July 1, with the remainder being used for the city’s water and sewer funds.
In its recently approved capital improvement plan, the city anticipates spending $26.2 million for capital projects in fiscal 2014 to 2017. The plan also anticipates using non-city funding for capital projects from fiscal 2014 to 2017.
In addition to the normal capital budget, in May the city anticipated $200 million in capital spending related to Sandy with the federal government covering 90% of the cost, or about $180 million.
