Jefferson City sales taxes fell behind the latest monthly projects, but city staff still is expecting the fiscal year to end with more than $600,000 in surplus funds.
At the Finance Committee meeting Thursday, interim Finance Director Bill Betts reported June receipts, which reflect the April reporting period for sales taxes, fell behind projections in all three sales tax categories.
The 1 percent general revenue sales tax came in more than $157,000 behind projections for the month, but because of a large increase in collections reported in May, the tax is more than $44,000 above projections for the year to date.
The city's half-cent capital improvement tax came in more than $82,000 behind projections, putting the tax roughly $34,000 behind projections for the year to date.
The half-cent parks tax came in roughly $65,000 behind projections for the month and is about $20,000 above projections for the year to date.
Even with the falling sales tax figures, city staff is projecting a large surplus at the end of the 2014 fiscal year due to franchise and utility taxes. The city's harsh winter has helped to increase the amount of utility taxes received and the revenue forecast model is projecting a surplus of roughly $419,000 from those taxes alone.
"We're still ahead for the year," Betts said. "We feel very good about the revenues right now."
May receipts had reflected such a surge in sales tax revenues that city staff said they planned to request additional reports from the state to try to get a better understanding of the large jump.
Thursday, Betts said staff has discovered the huge surges are largely due to when companies report receipts. If a few large companies report receipts a few days later than anticipated, those receipts may roll into the next month's reporting period, causing the large spikes sometimes seen by the city in sales tax receipts.
Betts said staff is continuing to look into the additional reports to help get as realistic as possible projections for the next fiscal year.
All of the financial documents from this month's Finance Committee meeting are available at www.jeffcitymo.org/finance/FinancialReports.html.