2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

a Special Revenue Fund in accordance with GASB Statement No. 54. The FY 2020 budget also provides for $0.0050 for economic development purposes and $.0350 for public transit support. The resulting General Fund tax rate was 61.56 cents per $100 valuation in FY 2020. Tax rates for the current and three preceding fiscal years were adopted, as follows, at the same overall rate, however, different allocations among purposes are noted: 2020 2019 2018 2017 General Fund $.6156 $.5856 $.5856 $.5856 Economic Development .0050 .0050 .0050 .0050 Housing Partnership .0069 .0069 .0069 .0069 Transit Authority .0350 .0350 .0350 .0350 Total Tax Rate $.6625 $.6325 $.6325 $.6325 The local option sales tax collection amounted to $58,379,799 as compared to the previous year's collection of $56,704,224, an increase of $1.7 million or 2.95% from last year, however, we note a 59.0% gain in the ten year trend for this revenue source. In FY 2020 it was determined that since Greensboro Transit Advisory Commission received a portion of property taxes it should also receive a sale tax allocation that amounted to $2,522,000. Guilford County uses the “ad valorem” (property tax) method to distribute its allocated sales tax receipts to municipalities within the County and as a result, sales tax receipts for Greensboro may fluctuate from year to year, depending on the proportion of property tax levies of each of the municipalities within the County, compared to the total collected. Local option sales taxes represent approximately 18.6% of overall general fund revenues in FY 2020. The total sales tax rate in Guilford County is 6.75% with 4.75% charged for the general state rate and 2.00% charged for the local option. The local option sales tax currently in effect is distributed by the State to the County as follows, with subsequent distribution to Greensboro and the other municipalities in the County, based on the “ad valorem” method: Article 39 (1%) Point of Origin Article 40 (1/2%) Per Capita Article 42 (1/2%) Point of Origin Greensboro’s occupancy tax collection of $3,601,730 has increased 26.9% over the ten-year period ending June 30, 2020. In FY 2020 there was a 23.1% decrease from the prior year due to traveling concerns pertaining to the coronavirus pandemic. Intergovernmental Revenues amounted to $60,949,727 as compared to previous year revenues of $56,923,120. State-shared and grant revenues are a major source of funding for municipal operations and services, with intergovernmental revenues comprising 17.8% of total governmental revenues, as compared to 17.4% in the previous year. Licenses and permits amounted to $4,169,072 compared to previous year revenues of $3,683,537 an increase of 13.2%. The increase is primarily due to an increase in the number of building permits during FY 2020. Fines and forfeitures amounted to $1,945,934 as compared to the previous year's collection of $1,896,318, an increase of 2.6% over last year. The increase was primarily due to an increase in city code violation collections, partially offset by a decrease in parking violation collections and library fines. 2r