Mineola EDC budget takes a conservative approach

Posted 7/30/20

Mineola Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) plans a lower budget and more conservative revenue approach for 2021.

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Mineola EDC budget takes a conservative approach

Posted

Mineola Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) plans a lower budget and more conservative revenue approach for 2021.

City Manager Mercy Rushing, who also serves as economic development director for MEDC, said people “are just not knocking the doors down”  in the economic development arena, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic response.

And the shows the city typically attends to make contacts with prospects have been canceled.

Special projects, such as a regional career and technical hub for the Mineola schools, likely won’t happen in the coming year.

As a result she lowered the suggested budget by removing the possibility of taking on a $600,000 loan for the project, reducing the amount budgeted for business incentives by $53,000 to $5,000 and dropping the special projects budget from $634,000 to $200,000.

Rushing noted that MEDC is projected to end the year with $558,000 in the bank, funds which could be tapped should a worthy project surface later in the year.

The MEDC is funded with a portion of the city sales tax, and Rushing said she is projecting flat revenues. With two months to go, revenues are up 8.5% over the previous year.

She said more people staying closer to home has likely contributed to steady sales tax revenues, along with collection of sales taxes on items bought online and delivered to Mineola addresses.

The board did agree to kick in $5,000 for the Main Street program business improvement grants, as that organization has been unable to hold fundraisers that normally help with such projects.

In recent years Mineola collections have been $12,672 in fiscal year 2017, $12,513 in ’18, $11,477 in ’19 and $10,462 this year.