Saint John appears to be on track for another surplus this year, according to the year-to-date financial results as of April.

Comptroller Craig Lavigne told council’s finance committee that they currently have a surplus of $8.9 million.

Lavigne said the largest driver is how some departments budget their expenses, which are $7.1 million under budget.

“We are working toward tightening that up, but a lot of the service areas do budget over a 12-month straight line and that will skew the results,” the comptroller said last week.

On the revenue front, the city has brought in $1.8 million more already this year than it expected.

But unlike the variance with expenses, Lavigne said he does not believe this is related to timing.

“Building permits and interest revenue are coming in higher than we did expect. Hopefully, if this trend continues for the balance of the year, we will continue to have positive results at year-end for these two revenue lines,” he said.

Unaudited financial results for 2023, presented at the same meeting, showed the city ended the year with a $2.7 million surplus.