Tulsa sales-tax revenue down 3 percent in holiday period
BY ZACK STOYCOFF World Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
2/13/13 at 12:30 PM
The monthly sales-tax check containing Tulsa's revenue for the end of the Christmas shopping season was down 3 percent from the same period a year earlier, reports show.
The Oklahoma Tax Commission's February check to the city was $20,625,648, the agency reported. That reflects sales taxes collected from Dec. 16 to Jan. 15.
Omitting routine interest paid by the tax commission, the city's revenue was $20,605,923, or $627,086 less than a year earlier and 0.6 percent less than last month's check.
That's the first annual decline in six months.
"A decline in monthly sales tax revenue isn't good news, but it reinforces the need for the city to operate conservatively and continue to try to reduce costs and deliver services more efficiently," Mayor Dewey Bartlett said.
Sales tax revenues are now 6 percent less than budget projections, but the city's fiscal-year-to-date revenue of $154,654,370 is about 6 percent more than at this point a year ago, officials reported.
The city was last behind budget projections in November, when it was experiencing a string of yearly sales-tax gains.
Revenue had increased in each monthly check since August, including a 3.6 percent gain in taxes collected from Nov. 16 to Dec. 15.
However, annual comparisons of revenue collected before October are misleading because a 0.167-cent sales tax increase took effect Oct. 1, 2011, as part of the 2008 Fix Our Streets program.
The October sales tax check, for example, would have been slightly lower without the increase.
The city's tax rate is now 3.167 cents.
Metro-area cities had mixed sales tax returns in February.
Revenue was higher than the previous month for Claremore, up 7.4 percent; Sapulpa, up 6 percent; Coweta, up 5 percent; Catoosa, up 4.9 percent; Jenks, up 3.6 percent; Sand Springs, up 3.1 percent; Muskogee, up 2.4 percent; Glenpool, up 1.6 percent; and Owasso, up 1.4 percent.
Revenue was lower for Wagoner, down 9.1 percent; Bixby, down 7.4 percent; Skiatook, down 5.5 percent; Collinsville, down 3.3 percent; and Broken Arrow, down 0.07 percent.
Oklahoma City's revenue fell 0.2 percent, the tax commission reported.
Original Print Headline: City sales-tax take falls 3 percent from year ago
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
|
