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Finance director reports midyear projections: business personal property and sales tax tracking ahead of budget
Summary
Washington County Finance Director presented midyear revenue projections indicating personal property and business personal property are on track or ahead of budget; sales tax and public service corporation tax projections were included and staff cautioned projections could change depending on next six months of collections.
Finance Director Ms. Sturgill briefed the Washington County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 25 on midyear revenue drivers and projections for the current fiscal year.
Sturgill said she would not project real-estate revenue at this time because reassessment activity complicates estimates; instead she focused on four major revenue drivers. For personal property tax the county budgeted $8.4 million and had collected about $7.9 million through December, projecting year-end collections near $8.6 million. Business personal property collections were ahead of budget—$5.7 million collected against a $5.35 million budget. Public service corporation taxes were projected to finish the year above budget at roughly $1.3 million (budgeted at $1.2 million), and sales tax collections were projected at about $10.3 million against a $9.95 million budget figure.
"I was very conservative in this projection of the last six months of the fiscal year," Sturgill said, noting collections are reported with a two-month lag and that economic downturns take time to appear in the receipts. She said some surplus reflected conservative budgeting and prior-year surpluses that reduced reliance on beginning fund balance.
Sturgill urged continued conservative budgeting and monitoring and said the county has used prior surpluses to reduce use of fund balance this year. Board members asked follow-up questions and thanked her for the report; Sturgill offered to answer additional questions and provide updated projections as collections are received.
