Riley County’s end of year revenues for 2020 came in slightly down from the previous year.
Treasurer Shilo Heger told commissioners Thursday that compared to 2019, Riley County revenues were down about $40,000. At the end of December, the balance for the general fund was $10,585,588, which is up a little over $2 million dollars from December 2019. However, the total funds ended at $94,030,384, down from 2019.
Heger estimates the 2020 general fund balance would have come in $2.8 million under if not for funding from the federal CARES Act. A major impact to that fund was the emergency services radio system upgrade. The county made a large payment toward that project in December.
The county ended the year for the general revenues at 5.96% over what was budgeted for 2020. The month of December 2020 was 46.56% over what was budgeted for the month.
Sales tax for the month of December, which reflects October sales, came in over 31% of what was budgeted. A total of $329,484 was deposited for the month. The calendar year ended 20.5% over what was budgeted for 2020.
However, sales tax still trended down for December, compared to one year ago by slightly over one percent. Given the anticipated downturn early on during the pandemic, Heger says these numbers are encouraging.
“All in all, if you had asked me back in April whether or not we were even going to make budget for sales tax, I wouldn’t have thought we would,” says Heger. “I’m very proud of our community and resilient we have been this last year.”
Heger also showed the total number of registrations and renewals for 2020 were slightly down compared to the previous year. There was also a nearly 22.5% increase in online vehicle registration renewals and a nearly 50% increase in paid property tax.
Heger says this increase in online payments helped keep people out of the office and maintain social distancing.
