Page 115 - Hurst FY19 Approved Budget

Hurst Crossing, a new shopping center opened in 2017 and has a new Chick-fil-A, Care
Now with a Natural Grocers and Rusty Tacos. Four new shopping centers including Hurst
Crossing have opened in 2017-18 including ones at Hwy 26 and Antwerp, a new 9,000
s.f. shopping center next to In-n–Out Burger along Hwy 121/183 and the Corner Bakery
shopping center on Precinct Line in front of Super Target.

North East Mall continues to be one of the premier malls in the metroplex and state
with eight new stores over last 12 months including Burgerim, J J’s Tacos, Austin 5 and
Miss A’s. Major renovations occurred at Rave Theater, Carrabbas Italian Restaurant, Kay
Jewelers and Brighton Jewelry. It remains 100% occupied.

High occupancy figures in the City’s large-scale retail corridor support the fact that Hurst
is truly a desirable location for major retailers. The City entered into a sales tax sharing
agreement with Simon Properties as an incentive to redevelop North East Mall and The
Shops at North East Mall. The Shops agreement was paid in full in 2008-2009 allowing
the City to begin collecting full sales tax amounts generated by the Shops in 2009-2010.
In 2010-2011, the tax sharing percentage related to North East Mall dropped by five
percent (9.4%). This resulted in additional sales tax revenue of approximately $80,568.
The additional revenue will help fund new budget issues faced by the City. For example,
Hurst will continue dedicating additional resources to the funding of health care and
post-employment benefits. The City does not budget for full collection of sales taxes.
The budgeted reserve of $1,000,000 and conservative collections estimate place the
net 2018-2019 General Fund sales tax budget in a position to absorb economic losses
without a reduction in service levels.

Franchise Taxes are collected primarily from utilities and are fees charged for the
privilege of continued use of public property and municipal rights of way. A 4% fee
on the gross receipts of public utilities will continue to be collected in 2018-2019. The
sanitation system collection service pays 10% of total customer billings for garbage and
recycling collections. Franchise revenues account for 8% of General Fund revenues and
are projected to increase from the prior year’s budget. Wholesale cost decreases caused
telephone and other video services fees to decrease by (44.92%).

As a group, General Property Taxes, Consumer Taxes, and Franchise Taxes account for
69% of the General Fund revenues for fiscal year 2018-2019. They are projected to
increase by approximately 4.3% from the previous year’s budget. The effect of the sales
tax sharing agreement for North East Mall and the early payoff of the Shops of North East
Mall Agreement has been factored into the projections. Local and national economic
indicators, such as the Consumer Price Index and unemployment data, are considered
in making forecasting decisions, but collection trends are analyzed monthly and serve
as the basis for the 2018-2019 projections for revenues, which have demonstrated more
reliability. Extrapolation is used when there is no apparent trend or seasonal fluctuation.

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