Publix - Moody

The City of Moody has a line in its 2016 budget that many municipalities don’t often get to celebrate.

In the coming fiscal year, the City is anticipating a 9 percent increase in total revenue from last year’s figures. In the FY 2016 Budget approved by the Moody City on Sept. 28, revenues increased from $10.7 million in 2015 to a projected $11.7 million this year.

“That’s probably a conservative number, too,” Mayor Joe Lee said.

Lee said that projection is coming largely from two sources — Love’s Travel Stop and Publix Supermarket. The latter is expected to open at the I-20 and US 411 intersection in December, and Lee said the City is estimating the store will see $24 million in sales its first year.

In the City’s agreement with developer Barber Companies, Publix will pay $310,000 guaranteed sales taxes each year. Beyond that, as part of the developer’s incentive package, the City splits sales taxes 75/25 the first year and 50/50 in years following. Lee estimated that would be a total of approximately $400,000 from Publix alone in 2016 revenue.

Down I-20 at the Brompton exit, Love’s Travel Stop is doing extremely well, Lee said. Diesel fuel sales in August alone were approximately $1.3 million. Taxes from diesel, gasoline and convenient store sales at the site are expected to provide another $500,000 for the City in FY 2016.

Lee called the figure conservative because he said the City did not take into account the new Warren’s Family Garden Center and O’Reilly Auto Parts on US 411.

Another highlight in the budget is a near doubling of Moody’s reserve funds from 2015 to 2016 — $892,000 to $1.6 million. Lee said much of this would be used to furnish and outfit the new Moody Civic Center, scheduled to open next summer.

The city is projecting to end FY 2016 with $644,000 available to roll over into next year’s reserves.