Sales tax revenue for Bartlesville was up about 4 percent and use tax was down about 1.3 percent compared to the same period last year, while overall tax revenue for the year remains flat, CFO/City Clerk/Treasurer Jason Muninger said this week.
According to the March report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the City received $1,772,775 in sales tax collections and $418,235 in use tax revenue for the most recent period.
“Last month sales tax was down 1.6 percent and this month it’s up a little over 4 percent, and this has pretty much been the trend this fiscal year,” Muninger said. “We’re sitting at 0.3 percent so far this fiscal year over last year, so sales tax revenues have been pretty flat. Use tax, while more volatile in the percentage fluctuations, the amounts are smaller, but it is up 6.9 percent or $257,000.”
Muninger said the lack of large swings is actually good news and reflect the conservative budgeting practices of the City.
“While we hope the trend will pick up, we really are in great shape thanks to conservative budgeting,” he said. “We prepare our budget each year based on very conservative projections. This has allowed us to guard against surprises and protect the City’s assets in cases of economic downturns and fluctuations in revenue.”
More about the tax collections & funding
Sales and use tax collections lag approximately a month and a half behind.
“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.