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Update nets P.C. $135,000
Jul 04, 2009 (The News Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- PANAMA CITY -- In commission chambers and city halls throughout the country, they have become almost cliche. Statements such as "We need to tighten our belts" and "Times are tough" now are the chorus of city leaders dealing with a sour economy.
Like other municipalities, Panama City's balanace sheets have been affected by the recession; but a discovery last year by city officials will help ease the crunch by more than $135,000.
City clerk Terri Lillard discovered that a state database of Panama City addresses needed to be updated with addresses annexed into the city. Because of the lapse, revenue the city annually receives from taxes on communications services such as telecommunications, cable and direct-to-home satellite had started to fall off.
"We had seen a decline for a while, and it was concerning," Lillard said. "We said: 'What is going on? Are people not using phone or cable?' "
When the city realized the database needed to be updated the got to work combing through minutes of commission meetings trying to make a list of all property that had been annexed into the city.
"It took about four weeks of going through the database and pulling minutes to find individual and actually tying each one in," explained Tessie Goicoechea with the city's accounting department.
Because in many cases the addresses are provided in ranges alone, the city does not have exact figures on the number of people added to the database, but they estimate it could be in the thousands.
The hard work eventually paid off.
Since June 2008, the city has increased revenue from the communications services tax by 10 percent, or more than $135,000.
Through June 2009, the city has brought in more than $1.5 million from the Communication Services Tax.
"It was a lot of work. We sent, like, three reams of paper to the state," Goicoechea said. "But we found a lot of revenue."
To see more of The News Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.newsherald.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The News Herald, Panama City,
Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
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