Sales tax collections were up 3.2 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the September report issued by the Oklahoma Tax Commission. The collections represent local sales during portions of July and August.
“Sales tax collections were up 3.2 percent over the prior year’s collections, or roughly $68,000,” said Chief Financial Officer/City Clerk Jason Muninger. “For the year, we’re sitting at 3.2 percent over the prior fiscal year (July 1 through June 30), or about $197,000 over last year’s collections.”
Muninger said sales tax revenue is up 4.3 percent over budget expectation, or about $257,000.
Use tax, which is sales tax applied to online sales, was down 44.5 percent for the period; however, the large number is somewhat misleading.
“This is primarily due to the astronomically high collections for September collections last year,” he said. “Last year’s collections were around half a million dollars, compared to $375,000 this year.”
Muninger said use tax for the year is down over last year about 7.7 percent, mostly due to the decrease in the most recent collection.
“Budgetarily that puts us down about 5.8 below expectations, or about $76,000,” Muninger said. “Use tax is so volatile, we could make it up next month, though. It’s very hit and miss.”
Tax Facts:
- Sales and use tax collections lag approximately a month and a half behind.
- 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.
- City operations are not funded by property tax, as is popularly believed. Municipalities in Oklahoma can only use property tax for debt service or court-ordered judgements, so the only property tax the City utilizes is based on General Obligation bonds and a small amount for court-ordered workers compensation claims. Additionally, the City’s 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.