Jefferson City revenues have surged ahead of projections for the 2014 fiscal year, and officials expect to be able to return roughly $1.5 million into the city's fund balance.
Jefferson City's 2014 fiscal year ended Oct. 31, but staff has to wait to collect sales tax receipts and other revenues that are reported one or two months behind before having a full picture of how revenues will look.
Finance Director Bill Betts reported Friday that the December sales tax receipts, which reflect the October reporting period, came in above projections in two out of three categories, and the end-of-year totals in each category were far ahead of projections.
The city's 1 percent general sales tax came in $98,849 ahead of projections in December receipts, bringing the tax to roughly $462,000 above projections for the 2014 fiscal year.
The half-cent parks sales tax came in $65,722 above projections and is now $235,554 above projections for the year.
The half-cent capital improvements tax was the only category that failed to meet projections for December, coming in approximately $14,000 below projections. But the tax still managed to come in roughly $177,000 above projections for the year.
Those increases have helped the city's sales tax reach a year-end total of more than $10.1 million in revenue, a number the city has never hit before, or at least not in recent memory. Betts said the highest sales tax revenues he's aware of in recent history is $9.7 million.
The city's budgets have been tight in the last few years and, in 2013, faced a mid-year budget shortfall of $1.68 million, which led to drastic changes in the city's budgeting process and financial policies.
Also helping the city's revenues was an increase in franchise and utility taxes, which came in roughly $600,000 above projections. While this increase was originally attributed to a colder-than-average winter, Betts noted the revenues in those categories continued to do well all year.
Only two revenue categories failed to meet 2014 projections: property taxes, which came in about $16,000 below projections, and fines and forfeitures, which came in about $13,000 below projections.
With the increased revenue, Betts said he expects to be able to return the $1.5 million to the city's fund balance. As of Friday, the fund balance was at $3.9 million, but Betts said adding the surplus revenues, plus any other funds not expended in 2014, should bring the balance up to nearly $6 million.
"There's quite a bit of money going back to fund balance," he said.
While staff is still working on closing the 2014 books, Betts said it looks as if most departments stayed under budget, meaning additional funds will be put back into the reserve fund.