For the first time in months the commissioners received a nice surprise at Tuesday’s meeting when the latest income tax distribution numbers were unveiled.
Kent County received a little more than $3 million in income tax revenue as part of the November distribution. This is a “huge change” from what was received at the same time last year, said the county’s Chief Finance Officer Pat Merritt. Last year the county received $1.7 million.
Merritt said the entire state has seen the income tax numbers jump 31 percent during this latest distribution. The state attributes the huge increase to bills coming in from people who filed for an extension on their 2010 taxes.
“I’m going to take the money, but I don’t believe what (the state) is telling us,” joked Commissioner Ron Fithian.
Merritt said that even though the numbers look promising now it could all change by the end of the fiscal year.
“This is not an indicator of how the year is going to end, this is how 2010 ended,” she said. “While it’s good news for now it may disappear at the end of the year with the last distribution.”
Meaning, the rest of the year’s distributions could be well below what the county budgeted swallowing up any positive difference in income tax revenue.
Michael Troup says
Pat Merritt is great. Never too up. Never too down. That’s how we like our accountants.