As of June 5, property owners had paid the Town of Columbia 95.49% of the tax the board of aldermen levied for the 2016-17 fiscal year.

The collection rate at the same time a year earlier was 92.93%, and the year before that it was 91.3%.

The board charged the town tax collector Ellen Bell with $258,225.76 last July 1, the amount of property tax needed to balance the budget for the fiscal year that will close on June 30. She reported June 5 that she had received $246,584.79.

The 95.49% current collection ratio exceeds the 94% the aldermen anticipated receiving during the fiscal year.

Town manager Rhett White reported that General Fund revenues from all sources, amounting to $556,084, stood at 68% of the total anticipated in the budget year. Examples of lagging income sources are sale of town tags, county vehicle tax, delinquent tax collections, sales tax, tax refund on motor fuel purchases, solid waste direct deposit, animal registration, Division of Motor Vehicles.

General Fund expenditures through June 5 were $754,469, which is 92% of the year’s budgeted total. Outlays that exceeded budget were park/ drainage maintenance by 22% and canal snagging and cleanout by 128%, the latter being the cost of snagging the unnamed canal east of Buds & Suds and parallel to Railroad Avenue that drains the middle school campus stormwater southward into Grindle Hill Canal. $9,350 was budgeted, but the project cost $21,358. NCDOT will reimburse the town for the expenditure, White explained.

Revenues in the Water & Sewer Fund were at $770,687, or 97% of yearly total, on June 5. Water-Sewer income was 9% above the anticipated $692,000 for the year, with 25 days remaining before the books are close on 2016-17. Interest earned in the fund was 244% of the $2,000 budgeted. But Other Income was only 30% of budget, and Water-Sewer Impact Fees revenue was at zero. All Water-Sewer expenditure line items were within budgeted amounts, and all outlays amounted to $621,000, or 78% of annual total. As of June 5, Water-Sewer revenues exceeded expenditures for the year by $149,686.