04.17.23 MEETING MINUTES - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council Monday, April 17, 2023 Page 3 We began this year with nearly 42 M in our general fund, allowing us to navigate from a position of strength, or as Garth Stein might say, with a full tank of gas. Let's get into some details: FINANCIAL POSITION. The Village suffered pretty drastic revenue losses in 2022 primarily because most Progressive Insurance employees continued to work from home in the aftermath of the pandemic. Our income tax collections totaled approximately $9 million, a decrease of $10.3 million from 2021. Typically, 75-80% of our revenue comes from income tax dollars paid by those employed and physically working within the Village. I was surprised to hear recently from residents that they did not understand that this is where the bulk of the Village's income comes from. Property taxes paid by Village property owners typically represent only 3% of Village annual revenues. Another 3% comes from things like rentals, traffic citations, departmental fees, etc., with the lion's share of revenue derived from income taxes of people coming to the Village to work. The Ohio legislature permitted employees who worked from home during the pandemic to seek income tax refunds for all of 2021, and the Village paid out approximately $1.9 million in refunds during 2022. This number would have been higher; however, beginning in August of 2021, Progressive began sending income tax dollars to the communities where their employees were living and working. At this stage of the game, there are pending cases seeking refunds for tax year 2020, and we do not know how the Supreme Court will rule. If refunds are permitted all the way back to March of 2020, when the pandemic began and all businesses were shut down, we can expect to see another hit to our coffers, and it is likely that 2020 refunds will be larger than 2021 refunds. Our total general fund revenues for 2022, which include our income tax collections, TIFs, interest, land rental income, refunds of tax collection costs, miscellaneous revenues and reimbursements, property taxes and charges for sales and services provided by our Building, Recreation, Fire and Police Departments, totaled approximately $13.7 million, a decrease of almost $9.7 million from 2021, primarily due to the decrease in income tax collections. In 2022, our general fund expenditures, exclusive of year-end transfers, were $15.5 million. This amount was down slightly from $15.9 million in 2021. Our general fund balance as of Dec 31, 2022 was $41.9 million, an increase of about $800,000 from Dec 31, 2021. This increase was due to the transfer of $2.6 million back into the general fund that had been set aside for improvements to the Civic Center. As you may remember, major renovations to the Civic Center were being discussed when Covid hit and that project was permanently placed on hold. If not for that transfer, the general fund balance would have decreased by $1.8 million.