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Lee County finance report: tax sale complete, revenues on track as cannabis tax adds new stream
Summary
The Lee County Finance Committee heard that the tax sale is finished and final distributions are expected later this month; Treasurer Reid Acree said revenues and expenses are on track for the fiscal year, helped in part by new local cannabis-related receipts.
The Lee County Finance Committee met at 9 a.m. and heard that the county’s tax sale is complete and final distribution paperwork is with DevNet, with staff expecting payments around the 20th or 21st of the month. Treasurer Reid Acree said the county remains “right on track” for the fiscal year: roughly one month remains in the accounting year, about 8% of revenue is yet to be collected and roughly 9% of budgeted expenditures remain unspent.
Reid said sales taxes and use taxes are tracking consistently with recent months and that the county’s newly levied cannabis-related taxes have been steady. “We’re budgeting, in total, around 12 or 13,000 a month,” he said, noting the receipts are split between a state-distributed component and a local sales-tax component the county collects under a local ordinance. Reid added that some state statute language provides partial restrictions, allowing some cannabis-related funds to reimburse public-safety or education costs but not making the revenue 100% restricted to those purposes.
Committee members asked how the cannabis receipts should be spent. Jason Anderson urged consideration of directing more cannabis-related revenues toward social services, treatment or public-safety programs given rising concerns about related behavioral-health problems. Sheriff Whelan said state statute does include provisions to use some of those funds for public-safety or educational reimbursements but that the revenue stream for Lee County is relatively small at present. “It could go to the courts, the sheriff’s department, public health,” he said.
Chair comments and questions were procedural; no formal spending directive was adopted during the meeting. The committee will continue to monitor receipts and include the revenue line in upcoming budget deliberations.
The committee also approved routine procedural items earlier in the meeting, including the minutes from the prior meeting.
Next steps: staff will continue to monitor tax distributions and report monthly on receipts and budget status during the remainder of the fiscal year.
