The Jefferson City fiscal year ends at midnight Halloween, but there won't be any spooks and goblins moaning about the status of the 2016 city budget nor the 2017 budget that will begin at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 1.
Through the first 10 months of the 2016 fiscal year, Jefferson City is $584,658 above projected general sales tax revenues, chief accountant Sheila Pearre and finance director Margie Mueller reported. Based on the year-long trend in sales taxes, Pearre said Friday it is realistic to assume the city will surpass the $10,303.921 in the 1 percent general sales tax budget for fiscal year 2016 when final collections are received later this year. Those numbers should be available at the next finance committee meeting Nov. 10.
The city's capital improvements one-half percent tax fund and its one-half percent parks sales tax fund also have reported positive variances in the 2016 fiscal year. The capital improvements account is showing a $310,118 positive variance, while the parks account is at $315,137.
The 2017 fiscal year budget adopted last month reflects the current positive local economy in its $11.3 million general sales tax projections.
First Ward Councilman Rick Prather, the president of Vogel Insurance and chairman of the finance committee, said his top-of-mind take on the positive condition of the city's finances was "cautious optimism." He attributes the surge in sales tax numbers to "a combination of things. The optimism in the community is, of course, obvious, and a couple of companies have stepped it up and grown, creating news jobs." His list of company expansions included Capital Container Products, the new Sam's Club, Scholastic Inc. and Modern Litho.
Mueller estimated modest growth in the proposed 2017 budget she presented to the council, following the trends in growth Pearre said she has seen collected by the city during the current acceleration in the Jefferson City economy.
"Nothing we are seeing gives us pause," Prather said, "but we are being cautious looking into the future."
Prather, his council ward colleague and committee co-chair Rick Mihalevich, the dean of instruction, research and planning at the State Technical College of Missouri at Linn, and City Administrator Steve Crowell all cited the city's conservative fund balance as evidence leaders were not forgetting their fiscal conservatism as the tax revenues rise. While a 17 percent fund balance would be considered quite strong by the Government Finance Officers Association, Crowell said, Jefferson City is maintaining a 20-21 percent fund balance, which often is called a rainy day fund.
All three also noted the imminent release of the long-awaited classification and compensation plan, otherwise known as the salary review. A similar study was recently completed by the state of Missouri, and the city's report is expected to stimulate the necessity for raising municipal salaries. Crowell said the 2017 budget reserves a place-holding $575,000 for that exercise, which he hopes is sufficient.
Mihalevich said the 2016 tax numbers created a "nice but not rosy picture" because projections for revenue from utilities were not met. A mild winter resulted in less demand for heat, Mihalevich said. On the other hand, he said he was happy to see the city add positions eliminated during budget shortfalls four years ago, thanks to this year's tax gains and those anticipated for 2017.
The next meeting of the finance committee will feature the annual report from the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Executive Director Diane Gillespie said Friday. That report will be all good news and positive projections, she said.
"(The year) 2016 has seen very good growth, and we see nothing but continued growth in 2017," Gillespie said. She complimented Chris Wilson, the bureau's sports and film sales manager, who she said was forecasting continued gains. Gillespie said those were largely linked to the bureau and the Jefferson City Parks and Recreation Department, the jump in attendance at the historic Missouri Penitentiary and business flowing into Jefferson City from the nearby Katy Trail.