For the week of Oct 30 - Nov 5, 2002

Ketchum LOT 
down 2.7 percent

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Local Option Tax revenues for the city of Ketchum were down 1 to 2 percent throughout the summer, compared to last year, and the city’s fiscal year-end tally is down 2.79 percent.

While not as dismal as the collections by the neighboring city of Sun Valley, where option tax collections are down 12 percent, Ketchum’s fiscal year-end option tax receipts reflect a year in which only two months garnered positive figures when compared with the previous year.

The year ended at $1.9 million, $55,000 less than the previous year.

January, however, was up 11 percent over last year, and February was up 1.71 percent. Those two months helped offset the damage done last September, when the city was down 12 percent.

Ketchum measures its local option tax on a fiscal year ending in August in order to conform to the city’s October-to-September budget year.

The current recession caps a decade of local option tax growth, and because cities draft budgets based on what they project they will collect, overspending is conceivable.

"It means we have less money than we thought we’d have to begin the new year," Ketchum City Administrator Ron LeBlanc said. "In last year’s budget, we had anticipated a weak economy, and we didn’t use a land development fund."

LeBlanc said the 2.7 percent overall decline from last year does not constitute an immediate crisis, and, because the land development fund was not used, the city did not fall into the red.

"We just have to tighten our belts and count every penny from now on," he said. "If this trend continues, I may need to speak to the council about implementing some stop-gap measures in the middle of the fiscal year."

 

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