The January sales tax report is in, and it’s good news — again. One of two reports showing holiday sales, the January report shows collections were up roughly 2 percent over the same period last year, which was itself a record collection.
“Last year, January sales tax collections were up 15.7 percent compared to the year before, which was the largest collection for January we had ever seen at the time,” said Chief Financial Officer Jason Muninger. “This year, we surpassed that number by 2 percent, so this January is a record collection for us.”
Muninger said the recent collection was $1,963,181, which is $37,382 over January 2022 and $73,397 more than was budgeted. The City has collected $13,500,626 so far this fiscal year, which is $958,285, or 7.6 percent, over the anticipated budget.
“We budget extremely conservatively, so the over-budget increases are not as surprising as they might seem on the surface,” Muninger said. “And certainly inflation has played a role in the increased collections, which are not exclusive to the City of Bartlesville.
“While it’s good that the gap is not widening in the negative direction, it’s important to keep in mind that a downward trend is most certainly in our future. But because we have budgeted as conservatively as we have, we should be able to weather that downward turn when it comes.”
Muninger said the January report is the first of two that represent holiday sales.
“The January and February reports reflect holiday sales, which are typically our two largest months,” he said. “Shopping locally really does make a difference, so we have citizens and visitors to our city to thank for these returns.”
With only a couple of exceptions, City sales tax collections have shown increases over the past two years, many times with record highs.
Use tax
The City’s use tax, approved by the City Council in 2021, was also implemented this month, but returns from that tax won’t be available until March, Muninger said.
“It will be March before we see even partial results from that tax, and maybe even April,” he said. “Basically, the use tax is the tax you’ve always ‘seen’ on your Amazon purchases; you were just never actually charged that amount until now.”
The use tax is not a tax increase for Bartlesville residents but rather allows the City to collect the existing sales tax from out-of-state sellers.
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