Sales tax collections were up slightly compared to the same period last year, while use tax revenue continues to be volatile but trending toward growth, City of Bartlesville Chief Financial Officer Jason Muninger said this week.
According to the May report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the City of Bartlesville received $2,022,503 in sales tax collections and $439,468 in use tax collections for the most recent period, resulting in a 0.26 percent increase in sales tax and a 4.28 percent decrease for use tax revenues compared to the same period last year.
“The most recent collections continue the trend we’ve been seeing in that our sales tax revenues remain pretty flat,” Muninger said. “We were up for the period about 0.26 percent, which is roughly $5,000 more than last year’s collection at this time. We’re roughly 0.7 percent for the year, which is about $150,000 in additional collections over last year. But since we budget conservatively, we are up almost two percent, or $423,000, over budget expectations.”
Muninger said the numbers are somewhat misleading due to larger than average collections over the past few years.
“This is actually the largest collection we’ve ever received in May, but they’ve been large looking backwards,” he said. “Last year’s was the largest May at that point as well. So, comparing back to high numbers, we aren’t seeing much growth. It has been flat all year.”
Muninger said revenue from use tax, which is sales tax applied to online sales, is far more volatile, coming in for the period with a 4.2 decrease, or $18,000 in collections for the period.
“That’s a decrease of just $18,000 for the period, and it is still up almost 7 percent, or $309,000, for the year,” he said. “Compared to budget expectations, we’re up 10.3 percent., or $450,000. So it has continued fluctuating all year but continues growing, cumulatively.”
Some Tax Facts:
- The City’s fiscal year ends June 30.
- 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, so the only property tax the City utilizes is based on General Obligation bonds. 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.