City Revenues

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CITY REVENUES

Debt service payments on General Obligation Bonds and Leasehold Revenue Bonds are made from the City's general fund, the primary operating fund of the City, and/or special funds established for receipt of Capital Sales Taxes and non-general fund monies (Enterprise Fund Revenue Bonds are supported buy user fees generated by the enterprise). Based on the Fiscal Year 2011 adopted Annual Operating Plan, below is a description of the five largest sources of tax revenue in the general fund.

Earnings Tax
The earnings tax is a one percent (1%) tax levied against employee gross compensation and business net profits.  The tax applies to all residents of the City regardless of where they work.  The tax also applies to the earnings of non-residents who work within the city limits. The earnings tax is the City's largest source of general fund revenue comprising approximately 31% of total revenue.

Franchise Utility Tax
Franchise utility tax is a tax on the gross receipts of the utility companies operating within the City, including gas, telephone services, water and steam, and on the gross receipts of the Airport.  The franchise utility tax comprises approximately 11.9% of total revenue.

Property Tax
Real and personal property taxes are levied on the assessed value of all real and personal property owned as of January 1 in each year.  Assessment ratios are 19% for residential property, 32% for commercial property, and 12% for agricultural real estate.  Personal property is assessed at 33.3% of the appraised market value.  In addition to the rate indicated above, commercial real property is taxed at a rate of $1.64 per $100 assessed valuation as a replacement for the Manufacturer's Inventory Tax which was repealed in 1985.

The current 2010 property tax rate is $6.9187 per $100 assessed value. Property tax comprises approximately 11.8% of total revenue.

Sales Tax
Sales tax is levied on all retail sales in the City.  Sales tax is not levied on certain items, including motor fuels, prescription drugs, food purchased with food stamps, all sales by or to not-for-profit organizations and residential utility charges.  The general fund portion of the sales tax is 1.375%.  In addition, the City imposes other sales taxes for specific purposes (e.g. capital projects, parks, public safety, etc.).  Total City sales tax rate is currently 4.266%.  Combined with sales taxes imposed by the State of Missouri and the Board of Education, the total sales tax rate as of July 1, 2010 was 8.491%.  The general fund portion of the sales tax comprises approximately 10% of total revenue.

Payroll Expenses Tax
A payroll expenses tax of one-half of one percent (0.50%) is levied against the total compensation paid by a business to its employees for work performed in the City. Not-for-profit charitable or civic organizations are exempt from the payroll expenses tax.  The patrol expense tax comprises approximately 7.6% of total revenue.

Additional information on the City's Sources of Funding can be found in the Fiscal Year 2012 Annual Operating Plan.