The Merriam City Council on Monday evening heard the latest sales and use tax update for the month of May, when COVID-19 stay-at-home orders were still in place. Merriam’s report showed May sales taxes were down 20% overall, Finance Director Donna Oliver said. Despite being down 20%, Oliver said she thought it “was very good news” since city staff forecasted sales taxes to be down by 80% due to the shelter-in-place order. “That was quite a bit of a swing, that was good news,” Oliver said. “That disbursement made about a $500,000 difference on our ending fund balance.”
(Read more: Prairie Village Post)

The Shawnee Mission School District will ask parents this week to choose an in-person or fully remote learning model for individual students for the fall semester. But district officials don’t yet have the final “gating criteria” from the county health department on when and how in-person instruction would be permitted. At a board of education meeting Monday, Superintendent Mike Fulton said that administrators were waiting on guidance from county public health officials before they could make a determination about what class might look like on day one for students who choose the in-person option.
(Read more: Prairie Village Post)