September sales tax down nearly 3 percent

September sales tax revenue was down 2.9 percent compared to the same collection period last year — but overall, it was still a good month, Chief Financial Officer and City Clerk Jason Muninger said this week.

“Though we took in $55,000 less, that is roughly the same amount we were up for the same period last year,” Muninger said. “And two years ago, we were up 14 percent over the year before, so this is actually a good month, comparing back to those larger collections.”

Muninger said September sales tax collections were $1,860,651 compared to $1,915,960 for the same period last year.

This is one of only a handful of times sales tax collections have come in under last year’s numbers, he said.

“Last June was basically flat with a half of a percent, $12,000, below the previous year, and then we have to go way back to last November, which was eight-tenths of a percent, or $15,000, below the previous year’s collection,” he said.

Year to date totals are $5,852,836, which is $126,000 over the anticipated budget, Muninger said.

Use tax

Use tax revenue for the months was $409,000. The use tax was implemented in January of this year, so there are no comparisons to be made.

“We budget very conservatively in every instance, but there is no history with our use tax, so that makes it difficult to know if these numbers are high, low, or where they would typically be,” Muninger said. “We budgeted $2.5 million in use tax for the year, so to hit that number we need to collect an average of $208,000 in revenue each month. So far, we are $520,000 over the anticipated budget for use tax collections.”

With only a few exceptions, City sales tax collections have shown increases over the past two and a half years, many times with record highs. Local shopping, inflation, and stimulus funds are thought to be factors in the increases.