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Kearney working group reviews use-tax fund, seeks year-to-date budget column
Summary
At a work session, staff reported FY use-tax revenue expectations of $1.3 million, about $242,000 collected in the first two months and a year-end cash balance of roughly $835,000; board members asked staff to add a year-to-date budget projection column to better track volatility in receipts.
Speaker 3 (Unidentified) opened the fiscal discussion with the city’s use-tax report, saying the fund’s expected revenue for the fiscal year is $1,300,000 and that about $242,000 had been collected in the first two months.
"We had 800 and almost $835,000 in the in cash at the end of the year," Speaker 3 said, and noted the city had paid $11,916 in administrative fees and transferred $177,800 to the sidewalk construction fund. The report also reflected a roughly $143,700 debt-service payment tied to the city’s pickleball complex.
Speaker 6 asked whether the staff could add a year-to-date budget column so the board could compare current receipts against where the budget projected the city should be at this point in the fiscal year. "What we need is a column that basically says what is our budgeted amount, where did we project to be at this point in time," Speaker 6 said.
Speaker 3 agreed to add an "anticipated budget for the year to date" column to future reports, saying use tax receipts "ebb and flow" and can spike with construction activity. "There were communities that got themselves in a lot of trouble because they thought they started budgeting operating expenses with use tax dollars," Speaker 3 warned.
Board members also clarified timing and reporting details: the "two months" in the presentation referred to April and May, and staff confirmed vehicle purchases appear in the state-provided files as sales tax rather than as use-tax receipts.
On debt-service timing, Speaker 3 explained the city makes semiannual payments in May and November, with May covering principal and interest and November an interest-only payment, which accounted for the lower-than-expected principal outlay in the May payment.
The working group directed staff to revise the financial packet to include a year-to-date budget comparison and to continue reporting by vendor source as provided by the state. No formal vote or binding policy change was recorded at the session.
