Sales, use tax revenue still exceeding budget expectations
According to the January sales tax report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, sales tax collections were down about 1 percent, while use tax revenue was down approximately 2 percent compared to the same period last year. However, both sources of funding are up overall for the year, CFO/City Clerk/Treasurer Jason Muninger said this week.
“Sales tax revenue was $2,036,333, which was within about $20,000 of last year’s number during the same period, which was up about 6 percent compared to the year before,” Muninger said. “Sales tax collections are currently about 2 1/4 percent, or about $300,000, above budgetary expectations for the fiscal year, which ends June 30.”
Muninger said use tax collections were down 2 percent, or $8,500, for the period. Use tax revenue is about 0.7 percent up for the year, exceeding budgetary expectations by about $18,000. (The City’s use tax, which is sales tax applied to online sales, was implemented in January 2023.)
“This is the result of budgeting conservatively for our primary revenue sources, which we do in preparation for every fiscal year,” Muninger said. “We budget for no or very minimal increases to enable us to easily weather any downtowns, so these dips do not affect us negatively. We are still in very good shape.”
Sales and use tax collections are 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 January report, we’re seeing sales that occurred mostly in November,” 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.”