WM budget commissioners crunching mid-summer numbers

WM budget commissioners crunching mid-summer numbers

‘ I believe that will remedy itself by the end of the year,’ says Catt after revenues dip

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West Memphis City Treasurer Frank Martin revealed another mixed bag of tax collections results at the August budget meeting.

Southland Gaming and Racing turned in another improved month. City sales tax showed a modest improvement over July of last year. Only the Advertising and Promotion tax under performed last year. The treasurer and budget commission chairman Tracy Catt shared thoughts on the downturn in hamburger tax collections.

“We can only say the two McDonald’s and the Burger King on Broadway were closed long enough for remodeling to make an impact,” said Martin.

“The A& P tax collection kind of surprised me,” said Catt. “It was down 26 percent. I feel like that was from some restaurants closed down for a month to two months for remodeling. For the year the A& P is still only down $42,492 under budget. I believe that will remedy itself by the end of the year.”

The A& P tax was off 5.7 percent year to date on actual performance and down $27,306 against the annual plan.

The City sales tax was above budget projections by $74,370. July performed $28,197 over plan, up 3.69 percent. The month to month see-saw performance this year netted a modest improvement at two percent year to date, amounting to $107,195 in the positive.

Southland for the month against this time last year was up $17,654 against July last year. Catt said the annual performance remained strong.

“Southland is $83,762 ahead of schedule,” said Catt. “Hopefully Southland continues to grow.”

By John Rech