Mt. Vernon Register-News

Local

August 31, 2010

City revenue higher than expected

By TESA CULLI tesa.culli@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — City revenues are coming in about 4 percent higher than projected, but council members were cautioned it’s too soon to determine if the increases will continue throughout the year.

“We have a three month trend,” City Manager Ron Neibert told the council during a special meeting on Monday. “We can’t really project a quarterly trend yet.”

The council held a quarterly budget update for the general corporate fund and the public utilities fund on Monday, with Finance Director Merle Hollmann reporting the actual revenues in the general corporate fund at 26 percent and actual expenditures in the fund at 25 percent — right on track for the year. In public utilities, revenues and expenditures are also sitting at 25 percent.

“We have taken out the capital revenues and property taxes because they aren’t received evenly throughout the year,” Hollmann explained. “That way the numbers aren’t skewed. It’s good that we are even 1 percent higher on the revenues in a $12 million budget. ... In public utilities, we’re at 25 percent, and that’s a good sign too. Parks and public utilities have a lot of activity in the summer months, and to be right on track is a good sign.”

In the 1 percent state sales tax, receipts for April, which were received in July were at 3.74 percent less than received the year prior; and the May receipts, which were received in August, were at 1.27 percent higher than those received last year.

The 1 percent Home Rule Tax, is showing the greatest increases, with the April receipts, which were received in July, coming in at 13.17 percent higher than last year, and the May receipts, which were received in August, coming in at 1.72 percent higher than last year.

“It’s too soon to tell yet, but the expected $260,000 deficit in the general corporate fund could go away if the revenues continue to come in above projections,” Neibert said.

But the news wasn’t all good, as Hollmann pointed out the state is lagging behind on its disbursements of the State Income Tax.

“It’s five months behind in paying, which equates to $600,000 they haven’t paid,” Hollmann said. “We only have one month this quarter they have paid, which we collected at the end of July — $78,000 that should have been collected in March.”

The operating cash balance in the General Corporate Fund was as $1.3 million on April 30, with $90,000 owed to the health insurance fund and paid in May and one extra payroll for the month of July of $260,000. The working fund balance of General Corporate had a beginning balance of $2.05 million on April 30, and a balance of $1.99 million on July 31. Hollmann said the budgeted balance on April 30 was at 1.7 million but the actual balance was higher due to the higher revenues.

In the public utilities fund, the operating cash balance of April 30 was $139,647, with $15,000 owed to the health insurance fund and paid in May; the operating cash balance on July 31 was at $87,932 — including the extra payroll in July which lowered the cash balance by $34,000. The working fund balance on April 30 in the public utilities fund was at $475,025, lower than the budget projections of $524,100. The working fund balance in  public utilities on July 31 was $425,539.

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