City officials are saying that despite a challenging year, Marysville is in good financial shape
“I would say the city, financially, is in as good a position as any city in the state of Ohio,” said Marysville Finance Director Brad Lutz.
Marysville’s general fund ended the year with $8.52 million in unencumbered carryover funds, $1.1 million higher than it started with. For the year, the city had general fund revenue of nearly $26 million with expenses of $24.9 million. The general fund revenue did not include the more than $1.5-million the city received in federal funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
City manager Terry Emery said officials went into 2020, “very optimistic about what the year would bring.”
And then in March came the pandemic. He said the optimism quickly turned to concern. Emery said he met with the city executive staff and asked the members to be cautious. He said the city had a reserve and staff was willing to reduce spending so Marysville was able to avoid layoffs that some other communities were experiencing.
Ultimately, however, 2020 saw revenue higher than that in 2019, which saw general fund revenue of $23.9-million.
Income tax receipts totaled $20.9 million, about $1.64 million, or 8.5%, more than collections in 2019. Lutz said the increase was “Primarily” the result of one-time payments such as beginning of the year bonuses paid before the pandemic as well as some bonuses paid to workers who continued to work during the COVID-19 crisis.
The city also saw a 13.8% increase in property tax to $2.2-million. Lutz credited the county revaluation for the increase.
Additionally, the city received a one-time $1.1-million rebate from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation.
Officials said other revenue sources, including bed taxes, fees, licenses and permits are down from last year, though Lutz said those revenues, “do not have a big impact on the city budget and aren’t big enough to warrant any type of concern.”
“Overall, it (COVID-19) didn’t have the negative impact we were afraid it could have,” Emery said. He added, “we are finding ourselves every bit of where we should be with a typical year.”
Emery explained that with the better than expected revenue, combined with the decreased spending of staff, “we probably ended 2020 in the absolute best case we could.”
City officials did stress that the one-time payments likely will not occur in 2021 the way they did in 2020. Lutz said he expects 2021 revenue to look like 2019 revenue. million. Because one-time revenue cannot be counted on, Lutz has stressed that one-time income should be spent on one-time expenses like capital improvements, not on recurring expenses like personnel or programs.
Lutz said he is pleased with the way the city handled the CARES Act money.
“I believe we have utilized these funds in a better way to deal with the pandemic and better the community in the future,” Lutz said, explaining that some communities paid for staff salaries while the city purchased materials and supplies to help keep community staff and residents safe.
Officials said that because spending and revenue were both impacted significantly by the virus and its effects, “2020 will be no good for financial modeling.
Additionally, Emery and Lutz stressed that some of the projects and expenses that did not occur in 2020 are still needed.
“We put off some expenditures, but some of those are going to come due,” Lutz said.
Emery said the largest and most difficult question to answer is about the pandemic.
“When are we going to come out of this?” Emery asked.
He said the city is planning for summer events but businesses need to be able to hold on until,” things start to look normal again, whenever that is.”