04.18.22 MEETING MINUTES - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council Monday, April 18, 2022 Pg #3 began sending income tax dollars to the communities where their employees were living and working. Although this hurt our 2021 bottom line somewhat, it was actually a benefit in that they began to change their withholding early. Our State legislature decided to allow employees who worked from home during the pandemic to seek income tax refunds for all of 2021. It remains to be seen how many refunds will be requested of Mayfield Village, but at least we know that any refunds requested from Progressive employees will only be for the first eight months of the year, instead of the entire year. As I said, we don't know what the impact of the refunds is going to be yet, but so far the refund impact has been minimal. As for refunds for tax year 2020, the Ohio Supreme Court has recently declined to hear a case in which the appellate court upheld the extension of the 20 -day rule, which is a positive for us, but there are other appellate courts who have yet to decide their cases. If there is a split among the appellate courts, it may force the Ohio Supreme Court to address the question directly. Our total general fund revenues for last year, and that includes our income tax collections, as well as interest, land rental income, refunds of tax collection costs, miscellaneous revenues and reimbursements, property taxes and charges for sales and services that are provided by our Building, Recreation, Fire and Police Department, totaled approximately $23.4 million, a decrease of about $1.5 million overall from 2020, primarily due to the decrease in the income tax collections that I mentioned previously. Our 2021 general fund expenditures, exclusive of year-end transfers, were $15.9 million. This amount represents an increase in spending of about $1.3 million from 2020. The increased spending was caused by final payments to several employees who retired, the return of special events and other recreational programs, and the hiring of three additional full-time firefighters in mid -2020. If you remember back then, we were having staffing issues because some part-time firefighters were not permitted by their full-time employers to work elsewhere due to Covid. Our general fund balance as of Dec 31, 2021 was $41.1 million, that's an increase of about $7.5 million over our balance of $33.6 million on Dec 31, 2020. We ended last year with total outstanding debt of $2.9 million, down from a high mark of $16.3 million in 2010. We currently have sufficient assets set aside in our debt retirement fund to pay off our remaining debt and will do so when it is economically beneficial and permissible to do so. Given the current Covid situation, our Finance Director Ron Wynne is considering whether it makes more sense to hold onto these funds rather than to pay off the debt early. I would be remiss if I did not mention that Ron Wynne has done a stellar job of tracking our income and expenses, ensuring that we continue to tighten our belts, and keeping the ship steady as we work our way through these uncharted waters.