Article content

Montreal ended up with a $145.8-million surplus last year — representing three per cent of total revenues.

The surplus for fiscal 2015 resulted from $4.9 billion in revenues — $58.5 million more than originally budgeted (1.2 per cent more than projected).

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or City of Montreal reports $145 million surplus for 2015 Back to video

Savings were also achieved by a $162-million reduction in expenditures, executive committee chairman Pierre Desrochers said at a news conference at city hall Wednesday.

The increase in revenues results mainly from major real-estate projects across the city.

But the Projet Montréal opposition accused Mayor Denis Coderre’s administration of using “creative accounting” to make itself appear to be a better money manager than it really is.

The city’s projections did not include $18 million in tax revenues from the two new megahospitals, charged Guillaume Lavoie, the opposition councillor for Marie-Victorin.

The city “purposely underestimated revenues to be able to have good news at just the right moment,” Lavoie said.