Finance report for city is 'good'
By Matt Caulder
Published in News on November 14, 2013 1:46 PM
The city of Goldsboro's tax revenues are up by more than $660,000 after the first quarter of the fiscal year, which ended in September.
Sales tax collections also have increased by about $17,000 to $1.64 million in the first quarter.
City Finance Director Kaye Scott said that the city collected more taxes than usual ahead of the deadline.
"It may just be people paying their taxes earlier," she said. "They may just be figuring they need to go ahead and pay this bill they have."
Mrs. Scott updated the City Council on the city's financial situation at its meeting earlier this month.
"We adopted our fiscal policy and we let them know what's going on," Mrs. Scott said.
She said that the city is bringing in more taxes and most of the city departments are taking in close to the same amounts of revenue as last year.
One area that took a hit in the first quarter was the city occupancy tax. The fund took in $165,000 this quarter, a $7,000 drop from last year.
"With the drop in construction we knew the decrease was going to come in the Occupancy Fund," Mrs. Scott said. "Without the construction going on at Cherry Hospital we knew there would be less hotel stays."
Goldsboro Municipal Golf Course revenues are up by almost $63,000 over last year's first quarter levels, mostly due to the course being closed for greens maintenance in the first quarter of 2012, Mrs. Scott said.
The course pulled in $163,000 in revenue from July to September.
The Paramount Theatre dropped in revenue from $21,000 last year to less than $18,000 this quarter. Mrs. Scott said the Paramount's figures fluctuate based on when events are scheduled and the decrease is not of special concern.
In response to a reduction in compost sales by almost 50 percent in the first quarter of this year, the city is pushing compost sales with its corporate customers to make up for the $4,500 reduction in sales.
The City Council approved capital requests in the budget from the Utility Fund for $705,000 for a horizontal grinder for the city compost facility and also $347,000 from the Occupancy Tax Fund for the Paramount debt payment and Herman Park tennis court lights.
The city also appropriated $26,000 from the General Fund for a local match for the design of the GATEWAY transfer facility.
Another $34,500 was spent from the Occupancy Tax Fund for a $22,500 demolition change order for the former Arts Council of Wayne County building and $12,000 to hire Site Solutions to design plans and identify a location for a proposed multi-sports complex.
Mrs. Scott will return at the end of January to give the Council a mid-year report.