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Economic development a boon

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Vivian Moon View Drop Down
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    Posted: May 13 2016 at 8:25am

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.”

 

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