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Finance director: sales tax and development up; ARPA funds nearly exhausted, reservoir near completion
Summary
City finance director Megan Lowry reported a 3.2% rise in sales tax over four months, strong development activity including 151 single-family permits, ARPA funds nearly spent ($1,472 remaining) and a reservoir project about 90% complete to reduce water purchases.
Megan Lowry, the city’s finance and information services director, told the council the city is seeing modest revenue gains and continued development growth during her midyear financial review on July 20.
Lowry said four months of activity for the general sales tax and the transportation-benefit district tax showed a 3.2% increase. She told the council that total gross receipts for commerce within the city were about $224.6 million, and that development activity remains strong with 151 single-family residential permits recorded compared with 112 in the prior comparison period.
Lowry highlighted that the city’s permanent revenue had increased and that building-permit activity and plan checks pointed toward continued construction. She also warned of some decreases in real estate-excise tax collections year to date—a 13.7% drop compared with the prior period—but said overall revenue trends remained positive. “We have collected one month of our local council medic public safety tax and collected $55,000 for that month of April,” Lowry said when summarizing collections.
On federal funds, Lowry said the city is near exhaustion of ARPA funds, reporting only $1,472 remaining. She updated the council on capital work, saying the reservoir project is about 90% complete and expected to reduce future purchases of water from Clark Public Utilities once online. The director said staff will continue reviewing water rates and tracking impacts of the new reservoir.
Council members asked for a breakout of water usage tied to local wells and how that will affect ratepayers; staff agreed to provide additional detail at a future meeting. Lowry invited follow-up questions and directed questions about specific projects to the appropriate project manager.
