Revenues add up to good times for county

These are good times for Ozaukee County government finances.

Savings accounts are fatter. Interest rate earnings are up. Sales tax collections continue to climb. Delinquent tax payments are down.

“This is really good stuff,” county Treasurer Josh Morrison said.

For instance:

• Sales tax revenue through March and reported in May totaled nearly $1.8 million, with $796,918 in March alone.

“These are (the equivalent of) Christmas dollars,” Morrison said, noting that March is often when people buy new cars and start getting tax refunds.

Those numbers also are bolstered by a new internet sales tax collection law that went into effect in Wisconsin late last year.

“Sales taxes stayed flat for two years and then increased by $500,000 last year and now we’re already up $400,000, 9% above where we were last year,” he said. 

Sales tax collections totaled nearly $8.3 million in 2018, setting a record. County officials are “conservatively” forecasting sales tax collections to total more than $8.5 million in 2019.

• Interest earnings through April on county savings accounts were up “astronomically,” Morrison said — almost $110,000 over April 2018, from $44,700 to $154,036, due to higher balances in interest-earning accounts and higher rates being paid by banks due to Federal Reserve policies. 

“By the end of July we will already surpass our (annual) budget for interest earnings,” Morrison said.

• Cash on hand was up nearly $2.8 million, or 12.48%, at the end of April over the first four months of 2018.

The increased balance was due in part to unspent funds from completed projects being transferred from restricted accounts to savings accounts, Morrison said.

“That was almost $1 million,” he said.

• Like many savvy consumers, the county is increasingly taking advantage of cash-back credit cards to pay some of its bills, earning about $90,000 through April, higher than ever, officials recently told supervisors.

Looking ahead, the county’s cash balance is likely to fatten even more as the property tax payment deadline on July 31 draws nearer.

“July is always big,” Morrison said. “It’s when we do the majority of our tax collection and receive state funding.”

That balance will be drawn down, of course, as the year goes on until the end of the year when property taxes are paid once again.

Morrison said the economy gets a lot of the credit for the good financial news, especially in regard to sales taxes, and low unemployment means more people have jobs and are able to pay their taxes.

“People are out spending money and the county gets a portion of that,” he said. “Our economy nationally and in the state are excellent.”

One cloud on the horizon might be if the Federal Reserve decides to drop rates, as has been rumored. If it does, that means county interest earnings likely would also drop.

“To see 2.5% interest or better right now is excellent compared to what it was 10 years ago,” Morrison said.