Allegany County Budget Committee members heard an update on sales-tax receipts and were told staff will prepare and distribute a budget timeline to county departments as they begin the fiscal-year budgeting process.

The update came during the committee’s regular meeting, when Terry, a county staff member, said sales-tax receipts are “down right now about 1.096%,” or about $140,000 less than the same point last year, and that collections have been improving from larger shortfalls earlier in the spring. "We are slowly creeping up to maybe being equal to where we were last year," Terry said.

The committee was told a six-month reconciliation is scheduled by the end of the month; that reconciliation will provide more complete figures for the first half of the fiscal year and inform department requests. "We should see if that's good or bad," Terry said of the upcoming reconciliation.

Jan Burrick, chair of the Allegany County Budget Committee, confirmed staff will finalize and distribute a budget timeline to departments so they can prepare detailed requests. "We are putting together the budget timeline, and we'll be ready to hand that out here soon to all the departments," Terry said.

Committee members also discussed the county’s upcoming tax sale. Terry said the county typically picks up about 3,000 delinquent parcels in its annual process and that the total amount those parcels represent often reaches about $3.5 million or more by year-end after reconciliation and collections. The county’s next tax sale is scheduled to begin in September, Terry said.

Committee member Gary asked whether returns from towns were tracking as usual; Terry answered that town returns remained “right around the same” as prior years and explained how local collections and subsequent county reconciliation combine to produce the final totals.

Terry noted a change under the county’s new system for tax-sale proceeds: any profits from the process will not be retained by the county but will be turned over to the state and the court system. "Under the new system, any profits, we don't keep. We have to turn those over to the state, to the court system, and this will be our first year for doing that," Terry said.

The committee approved the minutes of its May 21 meeting before the fiscal discussion. After the sales-tax update and related questions, the committee moved on without taking additional formal budget actions; staff will return with the reconciliation results and the budget timeline for department submissions.

The discussion was brief: five committee members were present and two were absent at roll call. Committee members did not adopt a budget or change appropriations at the meeting; the items discussed were informational and preparatory for the county’s budgeting cycle.