Siloam Springs looking to rescind some budget cuts

SILOAM SPRINGS —City Administrator Phillip Patterson said during the Aug. 4 city board meeting he’s looking to start putting items back into the 2020 budget.

The city originally cut $2.9 million from its budget in April due to concerns of low sales tax revenue and utility sales because of the coronavirus closings. Patterson and finance director Christina Petriches initially estimated an 8 percent reduction in revenue from all sources because of the pandemic.

The decreased revenue Patterson and the city were concerned about wasn’t as severe as originally predicted and now the city administrator is seeking to put $1.2 million back into the budget, he said.

“Based on the numbers Christina (Petriches) and I have reported in the past, we’ve seen sales tax numbers not go down like we thought,” Patterson said. “So we spent the last week or so looking at those things that we cut and started putting items back into the budget.”

City sales tax receipts run two months behind, so taxes collected in March and April when the shutdown was at its peak weren’t distributed to the city until May and June respectively, Patterson said.

The city received $763,846 in sales receipts in May from sales in March, up 12.65 percent or $86,762, compared to the same month last year, according to the June edition of City & Town magazine. County sales tax receipts for May were up 8.62 percent to $315,149.

Sales taxes collected in April and distributed in June were up 7.58 percent or $53,620 to a total of $760,768, according to the July issue of City & Town. County sales tax receipts were down by 11 percent in June to $292,040 compared to the previous year.

As of June, year-to-date totals show the city received 11.9 percent more in sales taxes than last year, Patterson said in July. In comparison, in June 2019, the city was only ahead of 2018 year-to-date sales tax receipts by 0.4 percent, he said.

While sales taxes are up, city utility sales have taken a hit from the pandemic. Patterson said the city is currently down almost $600,000 in electric sales because of businesses cutting down and because the area has had nice weather. Patterson said this may change if the city experiences hot weather.

When the budget cuts were initially made, Patterson said he planned to watch the sales tax numbers from March and April and if the city didn’t take a big hit they would sit down and look at what could be put back into the budget.

The hiring freeze that was put in place back in April is still in effect, Patterson said during Tuesday’s meeting, however he does plan on adding back funds cut earlier in the year. Patterson said the operational cuts totaled $669,720 and capital cuts totaled $350,800. Patterson will add the money back, minus $207,000 for the comprehensive plan, $130,000 for the Main Street Design Project and $10,000 for improvements to the Police Department’s outdoor training facility, he said.

“As much as I would like to see us kick-off the comprehensive plan … I don’t know how to do that with covid and how to make that work,” Patterson said.

The utility funds will have $880,614 added back ($198,374 for operations and $628,240 for capital) except for $153,000 in operations for tree trimming in the Electric Department; and $108,000 in capital for a tractor and mower for the water plant and a grounds mower for the wastewater plant, Patterson said.

In the street fund, the city cut $620,000 for the Harvard Street side path and that cut will remain, Patterson said. The city was unable to get any grant money for the side path and Patterson felt it is appropriate for the city to continue to try to get grant money rather than the city spending the money to build the side path, he said.

Airport cuts totaled $65,000, Patterson said. The cuts will remain except for $8,000 to repair the roof of the airport’s operations center, Patterson said.