According to the March sales tax report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, sales and use tax collections for Bartlesville were both up compared to the same period last year.
“Use tax, which is sales tax applied to online purchases, was up 32 percent, or $103,000, for the period, while sales tax was up 1.79 percent, or about $30,000,” said CFO/Treasurer/City Clerk Jason Muninger.
For the fiscal year, which runs July 1 to June 30, sales tax revenue is at a total of $17,571,249, compared to $17,486,880 at the same time last year. Use tax collections are down $6,000 year over year.
Sales and use tax collections lag approximately a month and a half behind, Muninger said.
“We receive a deposit around the eighth or ninth of the month, which is about a month and a half behind (sales), so when we’re looking at the March report, we’re seeing sales that occurred mostly in January,” he said.
Most sales (78 percent) and all use tax revenue go into the General Fund, which provides funding for most operations of the City of Bartlesville, of which police and fire are the largest.
“A lot of people think City operations are funded by property tax, but that is not the case,” Muninger said. “Municipalities in Oklahoma can only use property tax for debt service, so the only property tax we utilize is based on General Obligation bonds. Additionally, our utility services are self contained, meaning those departments are operated based on the rates and fees collected by each utility. So sales tax, which includes use tax, is used to fund everything else.”
For more information about the City’s budgets, see www.cityofbartlesville.org.