Olivette interim finance director reports year-end sales-tax shortfall, $13M in investments

Interim Finance Director Tanya Welch told the Olivette City Council that the city closed the fiscal year with mixed revenue results and unaudited figures pending the annual audit. She said reserves “fell just shortly below our budgeted goals for the reserves, but we still made it remain in compliance,” and noted sales tax posted a negative variance of about $200,000 for the year.

Welch broke down key revenue lines: use tax outperformed expectations by roughly $172,000 and property tax rose about $25,000 for the fiscal year, while parks and recreation finished about $16,000 above budget and medical-transport fees ended about $80,000 over budget. When a council member read the report differently, Welch confirmed the numbers were accurate for the monthly close but stressed they are not audited: “These are not audited numbers yet,” she said, and auditors are expected to arrive in coming months to complete reconciliations and journal entries.

Council members asked how the shortfall would be addressed. Welch said staff has already made budgetary adjustments and will monitor July and August receipts — historically months that include look-back adjustments for sales-and-use taxes — to see if the variance evens out. She emphasized the city’s practice of applying transfers and look-backs in subsequent months before making further policy changes.

Welch also reviewed the city’s invested portfolio. She said the city holds about $13,000,000 in investments with Commerce Bank and other accounts, including short-term laddered treasury securities (one nine-month ladder) and longer-term holdings maturing in roughly four to five years. Short-term treasuries were yielding about 3.5% in the reported ladder, and the city’s repo/cash account returned roughly 1.65% in recent periods.

Next steps: the figures will be finalized after the audit process, which Welch said the city has up to six months to complete.