City sales tax revenue declines in 2003

Total receipts

remain $105,000

ahead of budget

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- So far, the city's sales, use and excise tax collections are ahead of projections, but if the fall-off in 2003 collections is an indicator of the future, there may be some storm clouds ahead, City Council members learned Tuesday.

Tax receipts summaries prepared for the entire 33 months the collections have been in effect and for 2003 were presented to the council by City Clerk-Treasurer Reginald Vorwerk.

The cumulative summary shows that $2,095,204 in sales, use and excise taxes have been collected through Dec. 31, 2003. That's about $105,000 ahead of budget ($1,990,216) or 105.28 percent of budget, Vorwerk's calculations showed. So, the city has a small cushion to carry forward for possible leaner times, City Manager Brian Gramentz noted.

But, the results for 2003 alone were unsettling as collections, at $768,333 fell nearly five percentage points below budget ($797,005).

"So, that puts us in a fairly good position (with the cushion). We're OK at this point, but we'll see what 2004 brings, whether the 2003 trend continues," Gramentz told councilors.

A below-budget collection each year wouldn't be catastrophic, but, as Councilor Ron Fleischmann pointed out, "Although those are 20-year bonds, the plan was to pay them off in perhaps 16 to 17 years."

The slow-down in 2003 occurred in sales and use tax collections which, at $722,844, were only 93.51 percent of budget. However, excise tax collections right from Day 1 have been strong, ranging close to double the budgeted totals.

In other action, the council took final action for annexing 50.23 acres in Milford Township by approving the ordinance that would annex the Mack pit area which is adjacent to the city's western boundary.

The council then authorized the city attorney to draft an agreement with the Friends of German Park to allow the city to accept as a gift the Pergola honoring the city's early settlers. The memorial will be located in the park.

Denis Warta, representing the Friends of German Park, gave the council an overview of the Pergola denkmal or memorial area that will feature 14 Artstone pillars, 2 feet in diameter and 10 feet in length. The Pergola will be off-white in color and feature rough-sawn beams, Warta said.

Inside the pillars there will be 8-inch by 16-inch "pavers" that people can purchase to honor family members or whomever they want, Warta said.

"There will four 2-foot by 4-foot pavers which will honor four men who were early settlers of New Ulm, including Joseph LaFramboise, Ludwig Meyer, Christian Prignitz and Julius Berndt," Warta explained.

The Pergola will be built by Heymann Construction Co., and the cost of construction, estimated "in excess of $70,000," Warta said, will be paid out of donations the Friends of German Park have already received for the project. Warta said the plan is to dedicate the Pergola Aug. 13 as a part of the city's 150th Anniversary celebration.

City Engineer Steven Koehler reported work has started on the first phase of the city's recreational trail, a nearly 5-mile stretch that basically will follow the railroad tracks from the north end of the city to the south end at 20th South Street.

He said M R Paving of New Ulm, low bidder on the $644,000 contract, have graded and graveled "about a mile" of the route but haven't begun laying any asphalt paving.