Lyon County is in good standing to weather the potential financial storm due to the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
That was the message from Lyon County Controller Dan Williams during the Lyon County Commission’s weekly action session Thursday. While the full scope of financial impacts will not become clearer for at least another month, Williams says some precautionary number-crunching recently has revealed the county is sitting pretty as it pertains to any potential drops in revenue.
Williams attributes this to a number of factors including the county’s first quarter general sales tax collections coming in much higher than originally anticipated. According to Williams in the first quarter, the county collected a total of $734,000 in general sales tax collections.
If sales tax revenues were to show a significant drop, which Williams predicts they will within the next month, it will have little to no effect on the County from an operational standpoint as they do not utilize sales tax revenue for operational expenses. On top of that, Williams says the county ended last year with $5.6 million in the general fund which was $1.5 million above original expectations.
To top it off, the county has remained debt-free for the past several years, thanks to effective spending practices by county commissioners, meaning the county has no principal or interest costs to pay. In fact, Williams says the county is collecting interest from the current cash on hand which also provides a major relief.
Williams summed up the report stating the county is “sitting pretty good” as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
