From left, ORDA Board of Directors Chairwoman Kelly Cummings, CEO Michael Pratt and board member Cliff Donaldson applaud ORDA staff for working through the coronavirus pandemic at a board meeting on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Elizabeth Izzo)

LAKE PLACID — The state Olympic Regional Development Authority’s Board of Directors has approved a budget for the authority’s next fiscal year. The budget is $59.8 million and carries a $2.9 million deficit.

ORDA is expected to spend $4.1 million more in 2021-22 than this past fiscal year, but the authority also hopes to bring in $56.9 million in revenue, including $14.9 million in state subsidies. ORDA brought in about $52 million in revenue this past fiscal year — $37.7 million of which came from items such as ski pass sales, tickets, ski and snowboard lessons, equipment rentals, events, concessions and sponsorships, according to a recent ORDA financial report.

ORDA is planning to spend more than $28.1 million on employee salaries and wages, $15.2 million on employee benefits, $2 million on supplies and $13.6 million on “other operating expenditures” — things like utilities, fuel, travel and marketing, according to ORDA budget documents. The authority plans to spend $254,838 on paying down its bonds, and $375,000 on interest “and other financing charges.”

ORDA’s operating budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year has a $2.9 million deficit attached despite the $14.9 million in state subsidies and grants, and $750,000 in local subsidies and grants, according to ORDA budget documents.

ORDA is expecting its revenue to continue to grow. In a status report to the board of directors, ORDA CEO Michael Pratt touted the authority’s ski pass sales so far this year. As of last week, the authority had already sold 5,886 ski passes for the 2021-22 ski season at Whiteface, Gore and Belleayre mountains. That’s a total of $2,645,632 in sales, according to Pratt.

ORDA has had some difficulties balancing its operating budget in the past. When ORDA was audited in 2014, the state Comptroller’s Office gave the authority a slap on the wrist for relying on loans and outside contributions from other state agencies to cover cash shortages. Between April 2010 and March 2013, ORDA’s losses totaled $4.2 million in cash; $45 million including depreciation, accounts receivable and post-employment benefits due to its employees.

ORDA also relied on a line of credit to cover its basic operating costs, including payroll, the audit found.

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Capital budget

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The ORDA board also voted to approve a $105 million capital budget for the new fiscal year, money that will go toward maintaining and upgrading the authority’s winter sports venues ahead of the 2023 Winter World University Games.

ORDA’s operating budget is separate from its capital budget. The hundreds of millions of dollars the state has invested into upgrades to ORDA’s winter sports venues over the past few years are part of ORDA’s capital budget, not its operational budget.

The state allocated $105 million for ORDA venue upgrades in the latest state budget, and ORDA is planning to spend all of that $105 million in the next fiscal year, according to the capital budget approved by the ORDA board on Friday.

ORDA spent at least $146.9 million on capital projects this past fiscal year, and $98.9 million the year before that, according to ORDA’s year-to-date finance report.

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Year-to-date

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ORDA’s latest year-to-date report, which essentially wraps up the authority’s finances for the 2020-21 fiscal year, shows that ORDA brought in more revenue, and spent less money, than it had the year prior.

Between March 2020 and this past March, ORDA raked in more than $37.7 million in revenue, 3.98% more than in the fiscal year prior. That’s despite the coronavirus pandemic, pandemic-related capacity limits at its ski resorts, canceled sporting events and ongoing construction at its venues in preparation for the 2023 Winter World University Games.

Team USA athletes were still able to train at the Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg through the winter season; USA Bobsled and Skeleton held its North American Championships at Van Ho in March. USA Luge athletes were also able to train at Van Ho, plus at the newly expanded luge start facility in Lake Placid. Nordic Combined had multiple training sessions at the Olympic Jumping Complex in the winter. USA Biathlon trained year-round. The National Women’s Hockey League had planned a season in an isolation bubble at the Olympic Center in February, which was cut short just a few days before the playoffs because of an outbreak of COVID-19 there.

ORDA spent $52.6 million between March 2020 and this past March, 5.59% less than the authority had planned to spend, but still leaving an operating deficit of $14.9 million, excluding depreciation, or $30.2 million after depreciation.