Ketchum city coffers as measured by May's local option tax receipts show the city is in fine financial shape, said City Administrator Ron LeBlanc.
The total reported in May, which represents taxes collected by businesses in April, is $106,765, an increase of more than $11,000 over last May's figure of $95,564.
Taxes collected since October, the beginning of the fiscal year, show a 4.35 percent increase from the previous fiscal year's numbers.
"We are $55,000 ahead of where we expected to be in the budget," LeBlanc said. "We're looking really good."
Retail receipts from May were up 2 percent over April, while liquor receipts were up 12.2 percent. Building materials were up more than 50 percent from the previous month. The $27,252 figure is 15.4 percent more than last May's building materials LOT receipts.
"Building materials is a function of how busy we are in the community with projects," LeBlanc said.
A large part of May's building materials receipts came from three condominium projects south of downtown, the Frenchman's Place project north of downtown and a couple of big houses under construction, he said.
"Weather affects how things are built," LeBlanc added. "It's been really wet. (Otherwise) it would have been a lot higher. Now that the weather's good, you're going to see that number go up."
Room receipts and vacation rental receipts are down from the previous month, 3.3 percent and 23 percent respectively, but those dollar amounts are $125 and $403, respectively.
"What it really shows is that we've lost a lot of rental units," LeBlanc said.
LOTs collected since October total just over $1,330,000. The city budgeted income of approximately $1.9 million through the fiscal year.
LOTs typically make up 25 percent of Ketchum's annual revenue, LeBlanc said.
Ketchum levies a 1 percent LOT on sales of retail goods and building materials and a 2 percent tax on lodging rentals and sales of liquor by the drink.
