The District of Columbia's top financial officer said she expects the ldistrict to have a yearend cash balance of $45 million to $65 million for fiscal 1994, which ended Sept. 30.
"I know that we hit our estimates for income, property, and sales taxes," said Ellen O'Connor, the district's chief financial officer and deputy mayor for finance. Part of the positive cash balance was achieved through "close management" of bill payments to vendors, she said. Final figures will be available in mid-November.
The General Accounting Office has been predicting a $200 million shortfall for the district since last June, taking into account deferrals of payments into fiscal 1995.
But O'Connor said that number is "way off," although the cash balance "swung during the year, that kind of money." The district has sent the retirement board payments scheduled for the beginning of fiscal 1995, "so we are current with the settlement agreement" that the district reached with the board earlier this year on payments, she said.
"We also escrowed at the beginning of October 50% of all the debt service for this year ... so we've already set aside some money," she said. O'Connor discounted "second guesses" about the district's cash management. "We did do it," she said of the positive balance.
