Joplin City finance staff reports strong May tax receipts but warns budget relies on one-time revenue

A staff member presenting the city’s May financial report said May sales-tax receipts were up nearly 12% compared with the same month a year earlier and year-to-date collections were up about 4.25%, while use-tax and special revenue lines also showed notable gains.

The finance staff member said the monthly numbers were encouraging but urged the council to focus on dollar amounts rather than percentages when projecting results. “So, really, the percentage is not important. It’s really the dollar amount,” the presenter said.

On April 30 year-to-date numbers, the presenter reported operating revenue was about $311,335 above the year-to-date budget. She said one-time revenues and one-time expenditures were running below budget (one-time expenditures were reported roughly $653,000 below budget and one-time items overall were noted about $1.3 million under budget). The city currently showed a small net gain of about $58,478 but carried approximately $4,400,000 in outstanding encumbrances.

The finance staff member cautioned that, if projections rely on one-time revenue to balance operations, that approach is not sustainable over the long term. She noted that interest income and other timing issues had affected one-time revenue recognition and said staff monitor whether the monthly patterns hold for the remainder of the year.

No formal action or vote was taken on the financial report during the informal portion of the meeting; staff presented the numbers and answered council questions. The council then moved to an animal control presentation later in the agenda.