Some significant expense cuts allowed the North Central Regional Transit District to make a major dent in its projected revenue deficit after seeing large cuts in gross receipts tax revenue.
During a presentation made at an Oct. 4 District Board meeting, Finance Director Glenda Aragon and financial analyst Pat Lopez detailed how the District avoided a $218,000 deficit.
According to an agenda report, the deficit was largely due to a huge cut in gross receipts tax revenue from Los Alamos County. The District had expected a little under $88,800 in revenue from Los Alamos County in October 2013, only to have to reimburse $65,390 to the County because of a tax credit the Los Alamos National Laboratory received.
The District anticipated a 20 percent reduction in revenue. Some fears were realized—Rio Arriba County’s gross receipt tax contribution actually decreased by $12,800, a larger decrease than the $9,000 the District had budgeted.
But the other counties’ gross receipts tax contributions actually came in higher than anticipated, offsetting some of the losses from Los Alamos and Rio Arriba. Santa Fe County saw an increase of 6.5 percent while Taos County saw a jump of over $21,000 in gross receipts tax contributions, due in large part to a successful Mumford and Sons concert at the Taos Solar Music Festival.
The District also ended up trimming more fat than it needed to. At midyear, the District estimated expenditure cuts of over $676,000. By year’s end, because of cuts to administration and operations among other factors, the District had cut an additional $28,200 from the expenditures.
Because of the cuts, the District trimmed a little over $133,000 from its revenue deficit, resulting in a final deficit of almost $85,000.
Lopez said federal funds also helped the District reduce its revenue deficit. The fiscal years for state and federal funds are two months apart, allowing the District to spend federal funding before they have to dip into money from the gross receipt tax funds.
Even with the successful expenditure cuts, Board member and Santa Fe County Commissioner Miguel Chavez cautioned the District to stay financially conservative because of the unpredictable nature of the gross receipts tax.
“Just one little blip on the screen can throw you off the tightrope,” Chavez said.
As the District continues to negotiate the tightrope for its 2014 fiscal year, it received some good news. The Sept. 25 financial summary saw the District receive its first revenue from bus advertising at $3,130.
The District has also been keeping its books balanced so far, having spent $797,000 as opposed to the over $817,000 they’ve taken in revenue. The balancing act won’t last long. The District is set to make its quarterly payments to Santa Fe and Los Alamos counties at the end of the month.
Aragon said the District’s 2013 audit could become available as soon as this month. She said she was in contact with their auditing firm often to make sure early returns were positive.
“I felt really good about the audit this year,” Aragon said. “I think its going to be a positive report for the NCRTD.”
Board Vice Chair and County Commissioner Barney Trujillo, alternate designee and County Manager Tomas Campos (Rio Arriba County representatives) were not present at the meeting.