By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
A company hired by the City of Glasgow to track down and collect occupational taxes and fees that may otherwise get missed collected more than $37,000 over the past three months – the vast majority of which came in October and from one business.
Per the city’s contract with HdL Companies, formerly DataMax, the company gets half of those collections for up to five years after locating the revenue source, but that still brings the city nearly $18,600 for those months. In some cases, the revenue is not ongoing, though, as it may result from a company’s having business here temporarily. One example would be a subcontractor that’s only here until the job is completed.
Information about HdL’s collections is presented routinely at the meetings of the Glasgow Common Council Finance Committee, which gathered Tuesday evening.
The level of dollars the company brings in fluctuates greatly from month to month, which is illustrated by the differences among the amounts from August, September and October – $65.24, $277.80 and $36,850.36, respectively, before the 50/50 split. Even with expected variations, the October amount is atypical. In fact, it’s more than twice the amount of the first 10-11 months of the contract, which began three years ago.
“I think that’s the largest we’ve had, ever had, on this,” said Councilman Terry Bunnell, who chairs the committee and advocated for contracting with the company, referring to the gross collection amount of $34,263.30 from Wesco Distribution Inc., doing business as Englewood Electrical Supply Co.
Councilwoman Chasity Lowery, who had exclaimed “Wow!” when she first saw the October figures, asked what that business does or did here, and Bunnell said he thought they were on a particular construction project, but he couldn’t recall which, “not that that’s relevant. We’re thankful they did some business here in our community.”
In other business, the committee got an update on the status of the fiscal year’s budget to date.
“All the departments, everything big, we went ahead and got our equipment,” said City Treasurer Stephanie Garrett, noting the recent purchase of 19 acres of land formerly belonging to Farmers Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. was also included in the figures, as are the city’s insurance premiums that are a bulk payment made in July.
She said they wanted to get those major item purchases out of the way, knowing the city was on the verge of an even larger real estate purchase and park project, but on further reflection, she said it would be more accurate to say that 90 percent of the purchases have been made. She mentioned in particular a piece of equipment the Street Division has coming but hasn’t yet arrived.
Because of this, the total actual expenses for the period through Oct. 31 were more than actual revenue, making it appear as if the city could be operating in the red on the document she provided, but she pointed out that it did not include any of the balances carried over from the prior year, so it didn’t paint the total picture.
Property-tax collection season has just begun, Garrett said, and quite a few payments have been received, but they aren’t reflected on the books yet, nor are some anticipated grant funds.
“We’ve spent everything we planned, but we haven’t gotten in all our revenues,” she said.
Mayor Henry Royse said he was proud and excited to report that the city is now accepting debit/credit card payments, and Lowery asked whether there’s a fee to pay that way. Garrett said the fee is 3.25 percent of the payment amount.
Garrett also said the process of the annual audit has begun.
Both the other voting members of the committee, Councilmen Freddie Norris and Marlin Witcher, were also present.
The next regular meeting for the panel is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Dec. 17 in the Council Conference Room on Floor 2 of Glasgow City Hall, 126 E. Public Square.
