Sales tax revenues will give city ‘big lift,’ Tuey says
The city will be receiving “a big lift” in its sales tax revenues and should be able to meet or exceed the $14.325 million budgeted in Kingston’s 2020 spending plan, Comptroller John Tuey said.
“We found out this week the state has been doing quarterly adjustments to sales tax collections,” Tuey told the Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee during an online meeting Wednesday, Jan. 13. “This is the largest one to date.” He said the city received notice it would be getting a sales tax check that was approximately $462,000 larger than the one received during the same time period the year before. That means the revenues collected for that period were up nearly 68 percent, Tuey said.
Tuey said that check puts the city at approximately $50,000 up, year over year, in sales tax. The city is poised to meet or exceed its sales tax revenue budgeted for 2020, he added.
“So, I think that’s fantastic news,” Tuey said. He added that steps the mayor and council have taken to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the city’s finances have been “very effective” so there would not be a large draw on Kingston’s unassigned fund balance. Tuey also said there were still revenue shortfalls, but the city has also reduced its spending.
In his financial update, Tuey said the city saved $1,429,337 through temporary layoffs in 2020, along with reducing departmental expenses and not immediately filling vacant positions.
Earlier this year, Tuey had projected the city could lose between $4,073,538 in total revenues on the low end to $6,517,129 on the high end.
The latest figures project the city to lose between $1,226,138 on the low end and $1,698,202 on the high end. The low-loss estimate would leave the city with $7,633,699 in unassigned fund balance, while the high-end loss would leave the city with $7,161,635 in unassigned fund balance as of Dec. 31, 2020.
The unassigned fund balance as of Dec. 31, 2019, was $7,430,500. Those figures do not take into account fund balance spending in 2020 to cover such things as the settlement of a collective bargaining agreement with the Kingston Police Benevolent Association or how the city budget performed in terms of spending and savings.