2011-02-07 Study Session - Budget

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Ms. Watson said she did not know if the State is projecting anticipation of future sales tax. She noted the St. Louis area is different because our 1% county sales tax actually goes to St. Louis County and then to the pooled cities, whereas the sales tax from University City businesses comes directly from the State. So what the sales tax pool is doing will be different from what University City is doing. Mr. Glickert noted the Wall Street Journal and the Post had articles stating that Sales Tax in the State of Missouri was better this January than last January by five to six percent. Mr. Glickert asked Ms. Watson to explain the gross receipts tax. Ms. Watson –explained that last year this time, we had already received the AT&T landline settlement of $873,000, so being $495,000 behind last year’s revenue at this point is actually better. Mr. Glickert asked what the charges for services at thirty-six percent covered. Ms. Watson answered that the charges for services would be revenue from the ambulance service. She stated that we have fully implemented the City’s new financial system, so some of our accounting practices are changing. In the past, the receipts for the charges were recorded on a tax basis; they were recorded as they received them in the past and now it is showing the revenue as it is billed. She said that some of is the change is in the accounting at year-end. Ms. Watson said finance will provide this information to Council on a monthly basis in the future. Mr. Glickert asked if Ms. Watson could run through the steps taken when an ambulance has been called. Ms. Watson said if the City actually transports a patient, a record of what services was provided is made which then goes to the billing company, Medi- Claim. They code it correctly for insurance company payments. When those payments have been received, the bill is sent back to the City and the remainder of the bill is put into the City’s system. With Medicaid we are not allowed to send a bill for the difference. Mr. Crow asked for a point of information if Ms. Watson would have an idea of when the sales tax will be received from September thru December. He said he was trying to get a base for the sales tax. Ms. Watson said that as we saw the declines with the county wide sales tax pool, we did not quite see those declines in University City. With the pickup in the economy, we will probably see less improvement in University City as compared to the pool tax. Mr. Crow asked if charging for services was entirely for ambulance service. Ms. Watson said that it included a few other things as nuisance fees collected. 7