Revenues higher as City of Anacortes wraps up final financial numbers for 2022

The city receives money from multiple streams, including property tax, sales tax and tax on utilities.

The biggest source of revenue is sales and use tax, which brought the city just over $6 million in 2022, up from the $5.6 million it expected to see.

Sales tax numbers have been on an upward trajectory, with $5.5 million coming in during 2021, $4.8 million in 2020, $4.9 million in 2019, $5.1 million in 2018 and $4.4 million in 2017, Hoglund said.

The one-half of 1% sales tax increase that is set aside for affordable housing brought in about $792,000 last year, up from the budgeted $655,000.

Property tax revenue was just over budget, with $5.48 million coming in and $5.45 million budgeted.

For utility taxes, the city brought in $4.5 million while expecting $4.3 million. Of that, $2.1 million is from private utility taxes.

That's the "healthiest margin" the city has seen in some time, Hoglund said. Utilities cost more this year, as reflected in the portion of that cost coming into the city, he said. That number has also gone up as more people have moved to town, he said.

The Real Estate Excise Tax brought in $1.56 million, also higher than the $1.45 million expected. That is despite the total number of home sales being the lowest in 2022 than it has been since 2013, Hoglund said.

There were 353 home sales between January and November last year, down from 418 in 2021, 442 in 2020 and 460 in 2019.

Building permits brought in just over $727,000 in revenue for the city last year.

The City Council approved a budget amendment at its meeting that allows the city to balance out its funds. Several of the funds came in a little higher than originally planned, based on things like Cost of Living increases for staff salaries, projects that were delayed until the new year and other expenses that came in higher than projected, Hoglund said.

When the budget was approved for the 2022 year, there were several staff contracts still in the bargaining process, Hoglund said. This amendment helps balance those funds that are now over budget because of higher pay. 

It also balances the Emergency Medical Services budget, in which expenses are higher than planned because of ambulance costs. Sometimes, reimbursement from insurance like Medicare and Medicaid comes in at less than the cost of operating the ambulance, Hoglund said. The city has to write off the difference.

Also at the meeting, the city approved a switch to move its banking to SaviBank. The city called for proposals for a new bank and received two proposals. SaviBank had the best proposal in terms of fee amounts, Hoglund said.