Comptroller’s Office Releases 2nd Quarter Report
Continued call to closely monitor lower than projected sales tax revenue included in report
(Buffalo) – The office of Erie County Comptroller Stefan I. Mychajliw released an interim financial report for the Second Quarter of 2013 that includes continued calls to closely monitor lower than projected sales tax revenue compared to what the administration projected they would be.
In addition to an update on lower than projected sales tax revenue, the Second Quarter report includes fiscal information related to financial statements, investment reports, cash flow statements, property tax summary, debt schedules, and miscellaneous financial data.
"Lower than projected sales tax revenue could cause problems in this year’s budget. If actual sales tax revenue falls below the administration’s overly aggressive projections, there may be a hole in the 2013 budget. Our office will continue to keep a close eye on month-to-month actual revenue,” said Erie County Comptroller Stefan I. Mychajliw.
Erie County’s adopted 2013 budget included a projection from the administration that sales tax revenue would grow 3.73% this year to bring in $426,033,687.
Unfortunately actual sales tax revenue only grew 2.27% for the first five months of the year. If this downward trend continued the 2013 budget gap would be $6,007,287.
The administration shares the same concerns over actual sales tax revenue compared to their optimistic projections:
“(We) hope that sales tax comes in better than we expect, but right now we don’t think that is going to be the case. We think the budget for sales tax this year is overly optimistic. We are not going to make budget on that.”Source: Erie County Senior Budget Consultant Timothy Callan, Erie County Legislature Finance and Management Committee, March 14th, 2013
“In sales tax, again, if we had to budget it over, I would have budgeted less in sales tax.”Source: Erie County Budget Director Robert Keating, Erie County Legislature Finance and Management Committee, May 2nd, 2013
“The sales tax number is an area of concern.”Source: Erie County Senior Budget Consultant Timothy Callan, Erie County Legislature Finance and Management Committee, May 2nd, 2013
The full Second Quarter report for 2013 can be found on the Comptroller’s Office website: www.erie.gov/comptroller.