10-Deliberate on December monthly financial report

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City of Paris December 2009 Financial Report Comments Net to Date Comparison of Revenues: 1. Property tax collections are down 4.24% compared to this time last year. The critical point for tax collections is usually January 31St. Most taxpayers will pay by then to avoid any penalties. 2. Sales tax collections are 3.07% below last year's collections through this month. The current budget anticipates a drop of 7.91% in sales taxes for the year. December sales taxes were down for two reasons. There was an audit adjustment by the State of $61,815.37 and a collections decrease of $49,145.57. Sales tax remittances to the City from the State reflect sales from two months earlier. 3. Hotel occupancy taxes are 4.8% above this same time last year. All hotels are current on their taxes. The next payment deadline is January 31, 2010. 4. Franchise taxes are down 11.12% due to a much lower quarterly remittance from Atmos Energy ($69,039 this year compared to $165,301 last year). I am waiting on a reply from Atmos about the reason for the decrease. Apparently, Paris is not the only city with concerns about Atmos franchise fee payments being less than expected. The Atmos Cities Steering Committee has received a proposal from J. Stowe & Co. to review the franchise fees paid to cities by Atmos to verify that cities are receiving the proper payment amount. I would recommend Paris' participation in that review. 5. Municipal Court fines are down 15.72% or $13,908. 6. Hanger lease payments and interest earnings are down $6,633 compared to last year but this is due to the somewhat irregular timing of these payments. At times renters will get behind a month or two then catch up and sometimes they pay in advance knowing that they are going to be away for a while. Over the course of the year this works itself out but it can at give a distorted view of collections during the year. Likewise, interest revenue does not take place evenly throughout the year. 7. EMS fees are down 5.84% or $37,239 from last year. This is primarily due to reduced call volume. I have requested Kent Klinkerman to be available for your questions on this issue. 8. Miscellaneous collections are up and this is primarily due to the TXDOT reimbursement of routine airport maintenance completed at Cox Field. Under GAAP if this reimbursement is received in the same fiscal year as the expenditure it would be credited against the expense account it was paid from. If the reimbursement takes place in the following year as happened in this case, it must be reported as miscellaneous revenue and not a reduction of expenses. 9. Total General Fund revenues are 4.419'o below last year's receipts at this time due to the lower gas franchise payment and slower property tax payments. General Fund revenues to date equal 23.85% of the budget while the City is 25.00% through the budget year. 10. Total General Fund expenditures are 3.83% more than last year through this month. General Fund expenditures to date equal 24.08% of budget while the City is 25.00% through the budget year. 11. Water revenue is down 8.309'o reflecting the unusually large rainfall we have experienced while sewer revenue is down 1.21%. 12. Total Water & Sewer Water revenue is down 4.319'o from last year. This reflects the decreased water sales and the completion of reimbursements from the City of Irving last year. Water & Sewer revenues to date equal 23.93% of that budget. This percentage is slightly behind the budget to date percentage of 25.00%. 13. Total non-debt Water & Sewer expenses are 14.36% higher than this point last year and amount to 19.719'0 of the current budget not including the debt appropriations of $3,954,125 and debt payments of $3,885,358.15 made to date. Total Water & Sewer expenditures to date are 43.079'0 of budget if you include the appropriations and payments for debt. The largest portion of the water and sewer debt is paid in December each year.