Posted: 7:00 a.m.
Friday, May 13, 2016
Economic development a boon for Butler County
budget
Sales tax revenue increases
attributed to opening of Liberty
Center.
By
Denise G. Callahan
Staff Writer
BUTLER COUNTY —
Cities
and townships across Butler
County are seeing better
than budgeted revenues this year, including some with double-digit increases.
General
fund revenues overall were up 4.2 percent or $1.33 million at the end of April
and sales tax jumped $1.5 million — almost 12 percent above the same time
period last year — according to Butler County Finance Director Tawana Keels.
The county collected $14.5 million in sales tax by the end of April.
Other
key revenue categories, like property tax, investment income — which has been
in the basement for years due to the Great Recession — casino fees and boarding
of prisoners jumped 48.1 percent because the jail has been housing Brown County
inmates, Keels said.
On
the flip side, Keels said expenditures for the first four months of the year
dropped $678,687, or 2.5 percent, compared to last year. Keels attributed some
of the sales tax boom to the opening of Liberty Center,
but said the county budget is flourishing thanks to overall economic
development.
“The
county is on course to close 2016 with solid financial results and positive
growth in the ending cash balance,” Keels said. “ … Butler County
is experiencing a growth explosion.”
The
sales tax revenue increase just shows consumers are spending more freely, but
the county won’t exceed its $93 million budget, County Administrator Charlie
Young said.
“It’s
important, it’s significant but it’s not a complete game changer,” he said.
Elsewhere
around the county, the city of Trenton
is experiencing a welcome boost in income tax collections, which are up 14
percent over last year. Finance Director Mike Engel tempered the good news with
the fact the city’s general fund revenues have been on a steady decline since
2004.
He
said due to that decline they budgeted a drop instead of an increase in the
general fund revenues. He sounds cautiously optimistic the trend has turned and
said they could end up with more money in their coffers than last year by
year’s end.
“It’s
very early in the year to accurately project to year end, but if the general
fund revenues continue on the same track for the remainder of this year, the
city could finish the year up 8 percent over 2015,” Engel said. “But, to put it
into perspective, that would just get the revenues up to the levels of 2013
which were $200,000 less than 2012. In other words, the city of Trenton still
has a lot of ground to cover to recoup lost revenues caused by State of Ohio
cuts, and the long running general downturn in the economy.”
Other
communities showing an increase in revenues are Fairifeld at nine percent,
Monroe four percent, Hamilton saw a 7.8 percent hike
in income tax collections for
the first quarter. Middletown’s main revenue
source, income tax, were up 2.9 percent.
Fairfield
City Manager Mark Wendling said the city had an inkling revenues would be up
because there are some new businesses in town. However, he said, the city
always budget conservatively, and this year the general fund budget was set at
$28 million.
“It’s
income tax, it’s often times attributed to the companies doing well so they are
giving their employees raises,” he said. “We have also had some development
successes, so we’ve had some new companies come to town. But the bottom line is
it comes down to wages.”
Oxford
Finance Director Joe Newlin said as of the end of April the city had collected
just under $4 million of their $10.6 million budget, which is 35 percent of the
total collection. But he said they are just coming into revenue harvest time,
so to speak.
“We
historically beat our conservative budgeted revenue numbers. It is still too
early in the year to project the final revenue numbers since a good number are
more seasonal in nature — swimming pool revenues, building permits, hotel
taxes,” he said. “Our two biggest sources of revenue, income and property taxes
are on target — slightly ahead at this point — so the city of Oxford is on track to meet our budgeted
revenues in 2016.”
The
townships don’t have the luxury of collecting sales or income tax, so they rely
heavily on property taxes for the general fund. Liberty Twp. spokeswoman
Caroline McKinney said the township has collected 54 percent of the total
revenue that was budgeted for all funds so far, or $12 million of the $23
million budgeted.
“The
majority of our revenue stream comes from property tax, which is sent twice a
year, so our numbers to date reflect the first half settlement received,” she
said. “Therefore, we are on par at this time based on what we have received
versus what was included in the 2016 budget.”
In
West Chester Twp., revenues are up 2.3 percent compared to last year. Township
Administrator Judi Boyko said even though the dollars are up, that doesn’t mean
their spending will be.
“There
is no plan to adjust the township’s spending based on the availability of
funding due to more revenue or fewer expenses,” she said. “West Chester does
not consider available funds at the end of a year as surplus, rather, if
revenues receipted are more than projected or if expenses are less than
budgeted, West Chester will continue to build
its carryover to support the most critical needs and demands of the community
into the future.”