Youngstown income tax improves for March; shortfall for 2021 remains

YOUNGSTOWN — Finance Director Kyle Miasek said there was some improvement in the city's income tax collection for March but the revenue gap for 2021 caused by February's shortfall remains.

Figures for March that the city released Thursday showed Youngstown collected about $4.1 million in income tax for the month, against a forecast of about $3.8 million. Much of the $300,000 increase was due to a business profit tax, Miasek said. Like the city's individual income taxes, the city also collects business profit taxes at 2.75 percent.

While the improvement was welcomed, it did not pull the city out of the hole caused by February's $700,000 shortfall. Then, the city expected to collect $3.7 million in income tax revenues, but only collected $3 million.

Before the month of February, the city was on target for income tax collections.

"Right now, my negative target is worrying, but it's not as bad as it was last month," Miasek said, noting improvement helped close the gap caused by February's collections by about 43 percent.

Miasek said income tax collection month-to-month data is impacted by many variables that can affect the forecasted collection. Instead, he said he tends to look at the collections in larger components, like quarters.

For 2021, the forecasted amount for December was $3.66 million and the city received $3.58 million. In January, the forecasted amount was $4.1 million and the city received about $4,500 more than anticipated.

With March's income tax collection, the city is down about 2.6 percent compared to Miasek's forecast for the past four months because of the remaining $400,000 shortfall.

Miasek said his next target will be to look at where the city is at for income tax collections at six months in June.

This story was originally published April 16, 2021 at 4:11 AM with the headline "Youngstown income tax improves for March; shortfall for 2021 remains."