City sales taxes fall short
By Arthur McLean Editor

For the first time in at least four years, sales tax collections in Thomasville rang in lower than the previous year.

For the fiscal year ending in September 31, 2007, the city collected $4,303,824 in sales taxes, about $100,000 less than what was collected for the fiscal 2006 fiscal year.

The city collected $4.4 million in sales taxes last year.

Mayor Sheldon Day said he believed most of the shortfall was due to the closings of Ryan's and The Grill. "Those were two big taxpayers that we lost, and then WalMart stopped its layaway program last year, and that hurt us as well," Day said.

From 2003 to 2006, sales tax revenue in Thomasville has steadily grown from $3.9 million to $4.4 million, and increase of about $500,000 in three years.

The sales tax collections for 2007 are also short of projections. The city's budget projected collection of $4.54 million in sales taxes for the year.

But other taxes have run close to or beaten projections.

Lodging taxes brought in $75,072 which represents a 50 percent increase over projections of $50,000 for the year. But lodging taxes too fell behind 2006's numbers when $82,128 was collected.

Tax revenue from gasoline sales also fell behind 2006. Gasoline sales tax figures for 2007 totaled $180,383 while 2006 saw $200,074 in gas taxes come in.

Day said despite the drop in tax revenue the city is in good financial shape and - not counting money connected to the civic center project - the city has more cash on hand at the end of 2007 than it did at the end of 2006.

The city ended the fiscal year with $346,433 on the books in the unreserved general fund. The city's monthly bills including payroll run about $250,000 per month.

The city also has a related fund to the general fund that held just over $1 million. Day said that fund was used to hold money in a higher interest bearing account until it was needed in the unreserved general fund, and that money was regularly moved back and fourth between the two.

The total general fund balance, according to city reports, sat at $3.6 million for the end of the fiscal year.

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