By Ray King
Jefferson County ended the month of January with nearly $117,000 more in revenue than in January 2020, according to the monthly report from Treasurer Vonysha Goodwin.
Specifically, the county collected $7,936,950.09 last month when all funds were combined, compared to $7,859,424.83 in January 2020.
Goodwin said there could be any number of reasons for the difference including county residents paying more delinquent taxes, casino revenue, or the fact that both the city clerk and circuit clerk begin e-filing and since that is new, no trends have been established.
As a part of her job, Goodwin each year projects anticipated county revenue which forms the basis for the county budget and for 2021, her projections were higher than the projections for 2020.
For example, the 2021 county general fund projection was $10.5 Million, almost $1 million more than for 2020.
She said that projection was based on having more cash on hand since some county employees were furloughed last year and didn’t come back which saved money, additional savings from a reduction in insurance premiums, and casino revenue.
Goodwin also talked specifically about that casino revenue. The county received $73,872 in early January, with 25 percent of that amount going to county general and the remaining 75 percent going into the reserve fund.
The payment for February was $86,000 which Goodwin said was not as much as county officials expected but because of COVID, the casino is not operating at full capacity and when it is, that number will be much higher.
