Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Sales tax blip

I must have jinked the sales tax collection this month. Earlier I bragged that City sales tax revenue was continuing to rise. Our last report showed a small drop from the August 2004 report. So now we have 20 of the past 22 months with sales tax more than the year before.

Fortunately, we are still on target to receive $1.5 million for the year.

Consumer Confidence

Today I read on CNN that the Consumer Confidence Index is unexpectedly up in August. Dispite the oil prices and the affects of the hurricane in the south, we still see positive things going on in the country.

Later this month, Linda Sutton at the Small Business Development Center is sponsoring an Entrepurnial seminar. Folks from the Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship, the Department of Commerce and the Kansas Small Business Development Center are sponsoring a town meeting. It will be at CCCC on September 27th at 1:00 PM. Call Linda and get a reservation (785 243-1435).

I bring this up because when I saw the notice, I sent Steve Radley, Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship, an email and shared our "signs of life" story. His comment was: "Wow, that's exciting stuff and I would also agree that the number of companies is significant."

Consumer Confidence is a big part of a business owner's success. Now we are getting the word out regarding our success.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Corps of Engineers visits with Concordia

Thursday was a great day for Concordia. The Corps of Engineers came to town to discuss the flood control project. The Corps is working on a 50/50 project with us to establish whether we qualify for funding in their Section 205 program. Section 205 is part of the flood mitigation authority. What makes this a great day is that we are one step closer to knowing if Corps funding is possible.

We spent the day discussing what we wanted out of the project. The obvious is a flood control structure on the 21st street alignment. Secondary is the ability to sell property for economic development purposes. I have to say secondarily because if we rated the flood structure on a scale of 1 to 100, the flood structure is 100. Making the balance of the property available for sale would rate a 98. Seeing sales of land is important in the long run. It will help us repay the cost of purchasing the land.

The Corps brought a team of six to Concordia to evaluate the project. We described the work that has been done to date. Campbell and Johnson finished doing the topographic work to provide our engineers with information to develop a preliminary plat. This will be the initial step in making the land available for sale.

Briefly, to subdivide property for sale, a developer must prepare a drawing showing how the lots will be laid out. That is called a preliminary plat. Once approved by the planning commission and the city commission, the division of land becomes a “final plat” and sale of property can occur.

Getting into the Corps of Engineers funding cycle is our objective at this point. The Section 205 program is a 65 Federal/35 local cost share. We learned that land costs can be applied to the local share. Doing the math, $500,000 of land purchase provides up to $1.4 million of project cost. What the real issue now is Congress is not funding the Section 205 program like it used to. We started the process of lobbying our congressional delegation – Senator Brownback is on the Appropriations Committee – to help us fund the project.

The question to be discussed by the City Commission is whether we want to wait on Federal money for a 2007 or 2008 construction or pay the cost of construction from a GO Bond today (meaning 2006 construction). Weighing the risk of waiting on the Federal money against using local tax funds will not be an easy decision.

One side bar to the discussions was the capacity of the existing storm sewer system. Most of the rain events in Concordia are handled by the existing storm sewer system. The reason two dams are proposed is the quantity of storm water exceeds the capacity of the storm sewer. I asked Campbell and Johnson to estimate the project cost of addressing the capacity of the probable storm. The price tag is $8.0 million. It didn’t take too long to it was not a viable solution.

The Corp project team will have their work done in October in time for us to get our request in the next federal budget process. We should know by then whether our project qualifies for Corps funding.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Increased readership

I am happy to report that there are now 31 folks who have subscribed to the City Hall Corner Bolg. It is a small but growing number.

If you like what you see, send this on to your friends.

Yesterday, the League of Kansas Municipalities asked me to make a presentation at their annual conference in October about Blogs. My teaching partner at the League pointed out several times in our recent Municipal Leadership Academy sessions that Blogs are becoming one of the "new trends" for communication to the public.

As you see, I have a unique forum from which to speak. Those who respond with comments get the opprtunity to share in the forum.

I am pleased that you choose to read my "rants."

Sales Tax benefits

Several years ago, voters of Cloud County chose to impose a 1% sales tax county wide. The tax revenues were divided between the County and the several cities in Cloud County. The added sales tax has been a boon to all the agencies. I recall hearing Jamestown Mayor Judy Hill thank Concordia numerous times for the added sales tax revenue that it produces for Jamestown.

It is helping Concordia too! In reviewing Concordia’s Sales Tax collections since 1995, collections have risen from $794,400 to $1,423,300 in 2004. In 2004, the added 1% sales tax contributed $476,700 to the city’s revenue stream. The new revenue is equal to about 21 mills.

The City Commission gets credit for establishing a number of funds that benefit from the additional cash. An Equipment Replacement Fund was established that provides for the replacement of vehicles and heavy equipment. Each year, money is set aside for each vehicle to be used for future replacement. This is not exact science yet, but it is working. Many of the newer vehicles we have now are the result of putting money aside from the sales tax revenue.

The Commission also created a Capital Improvement Projects fund (CIP). This fund is one where funds are set aside to fund big projects too. Some examples are the mill/overlay on 11th street. It is 100% local funded. The mill/overlay on Broadway and mill/overlay on 6th Streets are KDOT projects and we have a share of the total project. Later this summer, the airport runway will be getting a new surface courtesy of a FAA grant where we pay 5% of the total cost. In each of these projects, the City had put cash aside to see they are done. By setting money aside, we are able to pay cash for the projects.

In FY 2006, the Commission is again planning to set aside from the General Fund $613,000 for projects. These projects include street construction, storm sewer construction, setting reserves for future “slurry seal” on streets, rebuilding a salt storage structure at the City yard, and several other projects.

The best part of this story is the sales tax is contributing to the ongoing improvement of our community. It is helping us be attractive to both business and customers. The July 2005 sales tax payment tells an incredible story about Concordia. The difference in July 2004 ($121,528.51) and July 2005 ($135065.53) payments shows $13,537 more revenue. It amounts to about $150,000 to $170,000 more business in Concordia in 2005. If annualized that is nearly $2,000,000 more sales than the year before. If we have nothing else to brag about (and we do), we can point to the new retail sales that is making our community a nice place to live.