By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

“That’s good news. Hopefully that trend continues.”

So said Hays Mayor Eber Phelps following Thursday’s report from Finance Director Kim Rupp showing an increase in sales tax collections for the city. “Everybody sat up when they heard we finally had an increase in sales tax (revenues),” Phelps said.

In his monthly financial report for May 2016, Rupp noted that month-to-date general fund sales tax collections were at $611,927, an increase of $11,689 as compared to last year.

“That ends a four month slide in sales tax,” Rupp pointed out, although “eight of the last twelve months experienced a notable decrease in sales tax receipts.”

Year-to-date general fund collections are $2,960,302, down $117,404 or -3.81% as compared to the same time last year.

Commissioner James Meier was curious why the city’s sales tax collections are down less than those for Ellis County which is looking at a 10 percent decrease during the past two years. “How do you reconcile that?,” Meier asked.

“The county is more than just Hays,” Rupp replied, “so outside the (Hays) city limits, sales are doing a little worse.” The city’s general fund money comes from sales taxes.

One notable area of increased revenue compared to May 2015 was water and sewer revenues. Vice-mayor Shaun Musil wondered if related infrastructure replacement could be sped up.

“We should be able to,” Rupp responded. “In sewer, it was around September/October 2015 that we did a rate increase, and then we did another rate increase on Jan. 1, 2016. Water was one increase on Jan. 1, 2016. We’re pretty much on track of what we thought where we’d be, even with the dip in consumption. The way we’re looking at projecting 2016 and budgeting for 2017, we should be able to put away what we thought we could (to pay for infrastructure replacement.)”

“And you’ll see that in the 2017 budget when it’s presented,” added City Manager Toby Dougherty. “The Capital Improvement Plan will have a lot more projects year after year after year because now we know we should have the revenue to cover those.”

Water and sewer revenue were up 2.88% and 29.74% respectively, or a combined $55,000 as compared to May of 2015 despite water consumption being down 9.6%. Year-to-date water consumption is down 6% while total water revenue is up 5.75% and sewer revenue up 30.2%.

Commissioner Lance Jones was absent from the meeting.