News
July Sales Taxes Below Last Year But Above Projections
ARCHIVED PRESS RELEASE: Published 7-8-2010
The City of Tulsa's sales tax collections for mid May to mid
June, as reported by the Oklahoma Tax Commission, are slightly
below last year's totals, but higher than predicted.
Actual tax received is $16,349,927, or .90 percent below
the $16,498,273 collected during the same period last year. The
budget estimate for the period was $15,607,000.
Use taxes collected for the mid-May to mid-June period totaled
$1,400,983. That was down 2.02 percent from the $1,429,799
collected for the same period last year and is 1.59 percent above
the projected amount of $1,379,000.
"This is the second consecutive month we have seen a slight
increase in our sales tax collections in over a year, and we are
still remaining cautious with our budget estimates and funds
promised for restoring certain services this fiscal year," said
Mayor Dewey Bartlett. "The last thing we want to do is to commit to
spend money on certain capital and ongoing items, when we may not
have the money to cover it down the road. We have to remain prudent
with our expenditures, as it is too soon to determine if sales tax
collections will either stay flat or decrease within a few
months."
"While we are still seeing a decline in both sales taxes and use
taxes, the declines are lower than anticipated levels," said City
Finance Director Mike Kier. "It gives us some hope that we won't
have to make additional budget cuts later in the year."
A $555 million budget was approved for the fiscal year that
began July 1. Last year a $578 million budget was first proposed,
but declining sales tax revenues led then-Mayor Kathy Taylor to
reduce the budget to the $567 amount approved by the council. Then,
in October, an additional $6 million was cut.
After the current administration took over in December,
additional budget cuts had to be made to maintain a balanced
budget.
