Sales tax receipts up nearly 15 percent

September 14, 2021

Sales tax revenues have hit another record month with September collections up nearly 15 percent over the same period last year, CFO/City Clerk/Treasurer Jason Muninger said this week.

The September Sales Tax Report, which reflects sales that occurred in July, indicates the City’s sales tax revenue for the month totaled $1.86 million, well over previous receipts for sales during the same period, Muninger said.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever seen even $1.7 million, let alone $1.86 million, for the month of September,” he said. “This month alone was $250,000 above budget anticipation, and a 14.7 percent increase over the same period last year.”

September is the third month in the City’s fiscal year, which began July 1, and the third in a row to set a new record for sales tax collection. The July report showed a 8 percent increase over July 2020, and the August report reflected an increase of 10.3 percent over the previous year.

The upward trend is a continuation of the entire 2020-21 fiscal year, with the City ending the year in June 5.5 percent over the prior year’s sales tax collections, which was 11.2 percent over the anticipated budget.

“The trend is surprising but certainly welcome,” Muninger said. “In our budget preparations last year, we expected people to exercise more cautionary spending due to the pandemic. And that could still well be the case, but either way, these collections show that more people are shopping locally, and that is always a good thing for the local economy.”

Muninger said federal, as well as Cherokee Nation, stimulus dollars have also played a role.

“We’re very certain stimulus money has played into this, so we’re not sure of what effect it will have when that starts winding down,” he said.

Muninger said cities across Oklahoma are seeing similar increases in sales tax revenues.

“In the past, there was a lot of leakage outside our area to other municipalities,” he said. “That has changed, and in that way we aren’t any different than our sister cities across the state.”