'Casual' county coin report Part V

Finance Director Chris Caldwell

Head Knox County Bean County Chris “Casual” Caldwell kicked off today's coin report, letting commissioners know that the county's general fund is on pace to wrap up the fiscal year with a $6 million to $12 million surplus.

In addition, he said schools are currently on pace to end the year with a $10 million to $12 million surplus.

The fiscal year ends June 30, but the county still has to wait on numbers, so folks won't officially close the books until – more than likely – late August or early September.

At that time, expect the County Commission to go on a spending spree. Probably the school system, too.

Heh.

During his report, Caldwell noted that sales tax revenues are currently trending up by about $202,000 for the general fund compared to this time last year; and $1.3 million for the general purpose school fund.

He also noted that the pot of folding paper for the Engineering and Public Works bucket is $323,000 in the positive, although he noted that gasoline tax revenues are down.

He said “we have already beat property tax collection (as of this time) last year,” but numbers for delinquent taxes are down.

“We'll probably see some flattening of that, but it's OK, we'll just have to budget for it,” he told the commission during its monthly luncheon, in which no one ate.

I can't remember what he said about the hotel/motel fund, but did note that “we had a bad April.” More recent numbers, however, should raise the trend, he said.

Caldwell added that wheel tax collections are up $120,000 this time compared to last year, but behind FY 2011 numbers.

The Casual One also said that probate and chancery court collections are up about $133,000, but February was a bad month. He said that Criminal Court collections are down $228,000, and Circuit/Juvenile Court collections dropped by about $90,000.