City commissioners voted Wednesday night to table action on the approval of the 2009 budget until next Wednesday to allow for more discussion. The decision is in light of the revelation Wednesday morning that the Kansas Department of Revenue has voided the 1 percent sales tax county residents voted in earlier this month. Counties need special legislation to impose a sales tax of more than 1 percent, according to Richard Cram, director of Policy and Research for the Kansas Department of Revenue. Lyon County already has a half-percent sales tax to pay off the courthouse.
“When we put the last draft of the budget together we assumed the sales tax would go into effect Jan. 1,” City Manager Matt Zimmerman said. “It’s difficult to know how this will affect the budget.”
The city projected about $220,000 per month in revenue from the sales tax, and decisions regarding the 2009 budget were made based on revenues collected starting at the beginning of next year.
“It’s our understanding that it will take legislative action to fix this during the next session,” Zimmerman said. There is a quarterly notice period required before the county can begin collecting revenue from the sales tax. “So if the Legislature acts right away we’re looking at April 1 at the soonest,” Zimmerman said. “So that’s three months of expected revenue, that’s about $660,000 less than we were expecting for the budget. If it doesn’t take effect until April it won’t be until July 1 that we can see that money. That’s about $1.3 million.”
The discussion to take place before the budget is approved involves how certain items in the Capital Improvement Fund will be funded.
“The city promised the voters and taxpayers that it will spend money in a specific way, namely, building and infrastructure,” Zimmerman said. For example, commissioners decided to fund repairs on Fire Station 2 with money from sales tax revenue instead of bonds in order to avoid interest payments.
“We have a few options we will discuss next week before we can take action on the budget,” Zimmerman said. “We have items on the CIP that were to be funded by sales tax revenue, and we have non-sales tax CIP items. We can either reduce sales tax-funded CIP items or reduce non-sales tax items, or we can try to reduce other operating expenses from the general fund.”
In other business, commissioners:
F Approved a proclamation declaring August 23 as “ALS Awareness Day.”
F Approved a proclamation recognizing Lt. Pat Ford for 30 years of service with the Emporia Police Department. Lt. Ford is retiring this month.
F Awarded a bid and approved a contract to paint the walls of William Lindsay White Auditorium. The contract was awarded to Durkes Painting of Eskridge in the amount of $97,545.
F Approved a resolution adopting a food-and-drink policy for the auditorium. The purpose of the policy is to prohibit outside food and beverages from being brought into the auditorium during public events.
F Approved an ordinance to amend the 2008 budget and authorize the transfer of money to the health insurance fund.
F Approved an ordinance to increase solid waste rates by adopting a fuel surcharge through the end of the year to recoup costs because of high fuel prices. The surcharge is as follows: polycart collection, 25 cents per pick-up each week; mobile home collection, 25 cents per pick-up each week for each location; Dumpster collection, 25 cents per pick-up each week for each Dumpster at each location; tipping fees, 15 cents for the first 500 pounds and an additional 15 cents for each additional 500 lbs.