Tom Munds

Despite the dark clouds hovering over the national economy, Englewood received a favorable monthly financial report for September.

“Revenue collections in the city continue to be good, above what they were last year at this time,” finance director Frank Gryglewicz said as he delivered the financial report to the city council at the Oct. 13 study session. “If the fiscal year ended right now, we’d be in great shape. But, we know how quickly things can change. With all the turmoil in the economy, we just don’t know what to expect over the next few months.”

The report showed that, so far this year, the city has collected about $30.1 million which is about $1.5 million more than collected at this time last year. That is a 5.2 percent increase in 2008 revenue collections when compared to the same time in 2007.

Sales and use tax collections make up about 80 percent of total revenues and the 2008 year-to-date collections were up almost $1 million or 5.6 percent from what was collected through the same portion of 2007.

In September 2008 sales and use tax collections were about $1.8 million compared to the September 2007 collections of $1.7 million.

Gryglewicz said the sales and use tax collections got a boost in August of last year with the end of the flow of dollars to the Englewood Urban Renewal Authority.

The authority was established in the 1980s, pledging sales and property tax from the area to repay bonds sold for urban renewal projects. The area never flourished but bond holders continued to receive tax dollars from the authority area. That flow of tax dollars lasted 25 years and ended in August 2007. The result is all those tax dollars which total about $1 million now go to the city’s general fund.

The 2008 budget forecast the city would complete the year with about $3.7 million in reserves. However, if revenue collections continue the upward trend, the forecast says reserves will grow to about $5.5 million.

The finance director said city investments continue to produce interest and revenue from the recreation department.

The holiday shopping season is important to Englewood’s financial health just like it is for all governmental entities that depend heavily on sales tax revenue.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens with holiday spending,” Gryglewicz told the council. “We hear a lot about the decline in consumer confidence but we’ll just have to see how consumer confidence is among the people who shop at our stores in Englewood.”

The city council reviews the financial report every month. Last month, in light of the struggling economy, Mayor Jim Woodward noted the council stood ready to act quickly to reduce spending if revenues dropped sharply to maintain a balanced budget.

— Monthly finance report good news

— Revenue collections up 5 percent

— Vital to meeting budget