East Wenatchee Has Solid October

The City of East Wenatchee enjoyed a mostly positive October financial report.

The East Wenatchee City Council was presented the city's October financial report, with revenue up 6% for the month as compared to October 2019, and year-to-date revenue up roughly 32%.

Finance Director Josh DeLay said the biggest reason for the revenue increases is actually just a change in accounting, although the city is looking good.

"One thing that I'm really liking that I'm seeing is the General Fund is up 1.4% from last year, so that's good because it's our main operating fund." explained DeLay, "However, sales tax is still down for the year. It's down 2% from last year, which I still think is a small miracle after that little stretch we went through. So we'll take 2%, for now."

In all, staff are not as anxious as they were earlier in the pandemic.

"Our real estate excise tax is currently at $471,000, and that's a 76% increase from last year. There's still tons of property buying and selling going on, which is good for the economy," continued DeLay.

Once the city is reimbursed its CARES Act funding, DeLay added that East Wenatchee will basically be where it was last October, before the pandemic. The city's cash balance is expected to go up an additional $400,000 to $500,000 once those reimbursements come in. East Wenatchee has only been reimbursed $92,000 so far.

Sales tax also appears to be up 7% for November, mirroring a similar increase in November of 2019.