The Greater Starkville Development Partnership is forecasted to finish Fiscal Year 2013-2014 with an almost $7,000 surplus after experiencing a spike in membership investments and total revenues in the financial year that ended Tuesday.
As of Sept. 21, year-to-date totals show the city’s chief economic development and tourism group received $621,244.55 in revenues while expending $624,060 in the fiscal year since Oct. 1, 2013, but GSDP CEO Jennifer Gregory said the statement does not reflect additional revenue deposits that turn the loss to a net income once the Partnership closes and finalizes its books.
The year-to-date numbers from September also show the Partnership received $276,801.55 in membership investments alone. Those investments were measured at $259,637.74 in FY 2011-2012 before they dipped roughly $18,000 in the following financial year.
Other groups within the Partnership’s umbrella of services also recorded banner years in terms of participation and growth. Four new taskforces on various Starkville issues — groups to study legislative; Miss. Highway 12 and non-downtown areas; minority affairs; and archives and history — assembled, while the Partnership worked closely with Starkville School District and Mississippi State University to lobby for community input on the upcoming school merger with the county system.
The Starkville Area Chamber of Commerce set a new record for members on Sept. 24 when it reached 483 individual accounts. The chamber grew almost 10 percent in the preceding fiscal year by adding 103 members, while the Committee of 100, the Partnership’s highest level of private sector contributors and most-involved business leaders, grew to 56 total members.
Its Visitors and Convention Council and Starkville Main Street Association, two groups closely tied to tourism initiatives, noted record tourism expenditures — a 3 percent increase from the previous calendar year — as the city continued to trend higher with its tourism tax revenues.
The group also held Starkville’s second ever Restaurant Week, which was the largest event of its kind in the state, while Starkville Community Market, under the Partnership’s guidance, saw its weekend attendance average between 800-1,000 people each Saturday.
For FY 2014-2015, the Partnership forecasts both $651,500 in combined revenues and expenditures.
Its membership investments are budgeted to bring in $302,000 alone, while management, marketing and administration contracts with the VCC and OCEDA should net the group an additional $323,000 in revenues.
As for expenditures, Gregory said the Partnership’s executive committee, which is responsible for setting and approving the group’s annual fiscal budget, trimmed back the organization’s office and general operating budgets in an effort to increase membership benefits.
Specifically, $1,000 was removed from the office operations’ telephone, fax and Internet budget, while a combined $3,300 was trimmed from the general operation’s line items for athletic tickets and professional dues.
Since the Golden Triangle Development LINK amassed a number of tickets for Mississippi State University athletic events, the Partnership will lean on its economic development partners in Columbus to provide those for prospective investors.
Total Chamber expenses will only increase $2,850 to $25,500 in the current fiscal year after numerous adjustments were made. While monies were cut from development initiatives and Starkville’s Miss Hospitality contest, increases were given to the other outreach services, including $4,500 to the Blue Ribbon Seminar program and $1,500 for membership development.
A new $15,000 restricted line item was also created for maintenance to the Partnership’s historic headquarters at the corner of Main and Lafayette streets.
Wages for the six employees who comprise the Partnership will increase by a combined $3,921 for the fiscal year. The uptick reflects a very minor cost-of-living adjustment.
“We had a really great year in large to the increasing commitments from our business community and from the efforts of our staff,” Gregory said.
OCEDA budget remains unfinished
While Gregory is ready to take her organization’s budget — a document already approved by the Partnership’s guiding board — to Starkville aldermen later this week, a fiscal plan for the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority remains incomplete.
As in past years, OCEDA entered into FY 2014-2015 Wednesday without an approved budget. Its leader, Jack Wallace, was sidelined recently with an illness that prevented him from completing the group’s guiding financial document.
OCEDA will poll its members after the document is finalized and is expected to approve its budget this month, Wallace said. He will then present the plan to Oktibbeha County supervisors and aldermen for their approval.
Like OCEDA, Starkville Parks and Recreation Department is also currently operating without a formally approved budget. Parks Director Herman Peters told The Dispatch this week the entity has an unofficial budget it is working off of, but its board of directors, the Starkville Parks Commission, should formally rubberstamp the document in its Oct. 14 meeting.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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