For the seventh month in a row, City of Bartlesville sales tax revenue is up again when compared to the same period last year, CFO/City Clerk/Treasurer Jason Muninger said Monday.
“According to the November Sales Tax Report, we’re showing an increase of $262,000 in revenue for November’s collection compared to November 2020,” Muninger said. “That’s an increase of about 16 percent for the period.”
Muninger said total revenue for the fiscal year, which began July 1, is currently about $1.7 million over what was anticipated during the budgeting process.
“We’re about 14 percent over anticipated sales tax revenue for the first five months of our fiscal year,” he said. “This is on top of a solid performance in FY 2020-21 (July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021) revenues. We had a couple of ‘off’ months that year, but overall we ended FY 2020-21 with an increase of 5.5 percent over the year before.”
The increases are likely due to a combination of more local spending and an influx of government and tribal stimulus funding into the local economy, Muninger said.
“We can thank our citizens, who are clearly choosing to shop more locally, for these increases,” he said. “Sales tax revenue is the primary funding source for municipal operations, and these increases help ensure that we can keep City services running smoothly and efficiently and, of course, help our community overall. This is especially important during the holiday season, as sales between now and the end of the year have a significant impact, up or down, on our revenue for the entire fiscal year.”
Muninger said other municipalities across the state are also reporting increases in sales tax revenue.
“This is not unique to us,” he said. “Nearly every other municipality in Oklahoma is reporting similar increases. It is widely thought that the pandemic changed the way many, if not most, people shop and spend. As a result, they are spending more money locally, and that has been very good for the City of Bartlesville.”