Putnam Mayor Estimates Year End Revenue To Come In Several Million Over Budget

Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter has estimated county revenue will come in some $9 million over projections.

Porter said the county budgeted about $77.5 million for this fiscal year. With two months left, Porter anticipates the final number to be $86.7 million.

“Most of that is the increase in sales tax revenue that we saw,” Porter said. “Hotel Motel tax is doing real good, and then, we had two or three million dollars of one-time funds that came in for grants or different things.”

Porter said without the one-time money, revenue will likely come in $6 to $7 million above budget. Porter said the only surprise to him was the amount of sales tax that was collected. Porter estimates it to exceed the budgeted $9 million by $4.5 million.

“Part of that is due to inflation,” Porter said. “If you’re going to the grocery store or wherever you’re going to buy something, six months ago it was $100 but now it is $200. You are paying twice as much sales tax, too.”

Porter said the estimates will be used by the budget committee to compare departmental requests versus the amount of revenue. As May and June revenue comes in, Porter said he will continue to hone in on the numbers.

“It’s a process that we work through every year since I’ve been county mayor,” Porter said. “You always start out with more requests than what you have revenue, so you have to work through that process and decide.”

Hotel Motel tax is expected to be $350,000 above the $700,000 budgeted amount.