Sullivan County officials are optimistic about what they call "found money" now that tax revenues are up this year.

"It kind of shows that the economic growth and the economic projects here have really had an impact on what the county budget can look like going forward," said Sullivan County Manager Josh Potosek. 

Officials say the data indicates the casino is playing a big part. 

"Our anticipation was that we would get a casino, and we would get other development that would follow along with it,” says Chair of the Management and Budget Committee, Democrat Scott Samuelson. "And that all of these taxes would rise, our sales taxes would rise, our room taxes would rise."

The county reported revenue gains for sales tax, room tax and mortgage tax during their monthly Management and Budget Committee meeting. Additionally, the county has received $750,560.50 in quarterly mitigation payments from Resorts World Catskills. 

"It's happening pretty much the way we were hoping it would, so we are really optimistic," says Samuelson. 

As of this month, the county took in around $3.5 million in additional sales tax revenue.

"Sales tax didn’t even anticipate anywhere near this 18 percent growth represents,” said Potosek. “We anticipated a small modest increase in sales taxes but nothing in that order."

Mortgage taxes also went up by more than $47,000 over this time last year. And room taxes charged at hotels and motels went up around $151,000.

Most of the money wasn't even planned for in this budget year. The county says they did add more deputies in this year's budget based on possible need. But, this increase in revenue is having an impact on staffing across the board. 

"Especially with more people coming into the county and more revenues coming in, we need to build our staff," said Samuelson. "So, that is one of the places."

As for where to put the rest of the money, those discussions will start happening as budget season ramps up this fall. 

"Public safety, roads and bridge infrastructure,” said Potosek. “I think that's kind of where we've been lacking resources and we now have some resources to address some of those problem areas that we have.”

This news comes right after a recent report by the Times Herald Record indicating that Resorts World Catskills is performing under projections. 

"What happens within the casino, is their business issues that have to be dealt with by the people at the casino," says Samuelson. "But, what we hoped the casino would do is being done."