The meeting was called to order by Chairman Surround with roll call (Hobbs, Jones, Martinez present). The committee reviewed January 2026 revenue and expenditures, received updates on ARPA-funded projects, and heard public testimony.
Good afternoon. The uh monthly meeting of the Finance Debt Budget Oversight Committee uh will come to order and the clerk will call the roll. Surround two Hobbs, Jones here, Martinez. For present. Thank you. Um we're gonna begin uh today uh for a uh condensed report from the finance department uh for our monthly report for the month of January, uh revenue and expenses, and then we'll get into the um ARPA updates. And I appreciate the fact we've got several people here from the various uh organizations that uh benefited from the ARPA allocations and uh we will be getting to you very shortly. And the final item on the agenda will be the uh city auditors report. Okay. Uh with that, uh turn it over to the director of finance, uh Melanie Campbell. Good afternoon. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Surround 2, Vice Chairman Driscoll and members of the committee. Um we're happy to be here today reporting uh January revenues and expenses. I'm joined um at the table today by our tax commissioner John Zavisha, accounts commissioner Thomas Buckley, and purchasing commissioner Natalie Brona. Um we as the chairman said, we have a brief update on January revenues and expenditures. Commissioner Zavisha will also provide a brief update on um income tax collections, though not final for last year. He will give the committee an update on where we're at. And with that, I will turn it over to him. Good afternoon. I'll be talking on pages two and three of the report. Uh page two is our 2025 tax collections. Um we are currently in the 13th period that will end on February 28th. Um we're given 60 days to still finish up the collections from the previous year, uh, fourth quarter estimate payments and the last uh withholding payment. Uh currently we're projecting that number to end up at 19.6 million, which would bring us to 236.6 for the year. Um we have about 18 and a half of that actually already in. We're still projecting about 1.1 to come uh as there's a sizable state payment that'll be uh coming pretty much right at the last day. Um that number from a year-to-year basis, sometimes is as little as 350,000, other years it's been 3.5 million. We're taking a conservative approach of about 1.1, which is the average of the last five years to put that number on this report for right now. Um so again, that would bring us at the end of the year to 236.6. Um just a little general overall withholding is running about three point four percent up from last year. Uh business is actually down nineteen point eight percent, and then individual is up three point six percent. Uh just uh briefly uh the IRS. Yes, so the IRS unit uh for the month of January brought in two hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Um they are done about a hundred and seven thousand from last year. Um since we're working with the Ohio Attorney General uh for the compliance unit, that'll kick in more the second half of 2026. Um so last year they brought in six point two million at this point. We would be comfortable to say that they're going to still get to the six point two this year, but we will probably see a slower first half and then building momentum as the year goes on for that group. And regarding the final general now or yes, so the uh that's a big project for us. We've already started that. There's been about 3500 cases that have gone over to the Ohio Attorney General representing about two million dollars in delinquent taxes. Um the state has actually already brought in 135,000 of that amount. Um and then as the year goes on, we're figuring that'll probably get closer to five, six million that we'll have sent over by the end of the year. Um and then uh expecting a lot of growth from that as the year goes on. Correct. No, what ends up happening is once we turn it over to the state, usually within a week, a taxpayer would end up getting a letter from the Ohio Attorney General letting them know on that uh they can it'll give them the different options for making payments. Um you can actually on Tuesdays and Thursdays actually come to the 13th floor of the government center, they'll accept payments there. Um if you are using credit cards, it'll tell you how to do that because they do not take credit cards in person. So that aspect of that would have to be done online. Okay.