The Woodlands Township balanced $3.5M in lost revenue with $7.9M less spending, officials said

Despite losses due to coronavirus-related closures this year, The Woodlands Township has been able to stay on course financially due to lower expenditures, officials said at a late September board of directors meeting.

The Woodlands Township’s revenues as of August were about $3.5 million below the budgeted amount, largely due to decreased sales tax revenue, said Monique Sharp, the township’s assistant general manager for finance and administration. The township is home to a number of retail centers such as The Woodlands Mall and Market Street as well as numerous restaurants.

Sharp said losses in township program revenues, which include bus fares, recreation, and park and ride revenues, also contributed to the decline. Most township recreation programs and its park and ride service were also closed for a portion of the year.

The actual township revenues of $84.7 million were short of the budgeted amount of $88.3 million, she said at a Sept. 23 virtual meeting. However, the township only spent $57.5 million out of the $65.4 million budgeted, so the $7.9 million in savings offset the $3.5 million in lower revenue.

The forecast for sales tax revenue in 2020 was reduced by 11.2% from the original amount, she said. However, the revenue is only about 8.3% off the original projections.

"Even if we were to maintain being 20% of budget ... where we end up at the end of the year is the [11.2%] that we were talking about earlier. Even in a worst-case scenario we're going to come out where we forecasted, so that's good news," Sharp said.

Sales tax revenue in the month of September reflects revenue collected in July.

"Even if for some reason all of that went south on us, ... we have a very healthy sales tax reserve currently," Sharp said. "We are at $4.4 million."