By: Summer Kelley, Staff Reporter

Last week the city of Trenton held their December city commission meeting and it was stated that revenues were down and so the city was showing a deficit of $16,000 on paper only.

Further inquiry was made of City Clerk Lucretia Houts to understand where the $16,000 on the city’s financial reports had come from. 

“Revenue isn’t really down,” Houts said. “Sales tax for December has not been receipted into record.  We don’t record it until the bank statement comes in. We may not be down at all in revenues.”

So what the negative balance really comes down to is a matter of bad timing, the bank statements that show the exact amount of sales tax deposited to the city accounts for the month had not come in before the December meeting resulting in a negative balance on the city’s financial reports. 

Besides, according to Houts there is not a negative balance in any of the city’s accounts. In fact, it is quite the opposite with more than enough to cover December’s expenses until the sales tax deposit is made. 

Houts also said that while the city had seen a few low months in revenue collections, the collections had not been down enough to make any negative balances in the city’s budget.

With talk of taxes this time of year, thoughts turn to property taxes, which are due this month. Tax Commissioner Jane Moreland said last year was a good year for property tax collections. Currently the county has 99 percent of last year’s property taxes collected and many people have already arrived to pay this year’s property taxes.

“We had a record October and November this year in collections,” Moreland said. “Property tax collections have been great.”

Personal property taxes for 2009 are due Dec. 20. For questions about taxes or tax bills, contact the Tax Commissioner’s office at (706) 657-7563.