Tulsa Business Staff
2/8/2010
The preliminary report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission regarding sales tax collections for the City of Tulsa have now declined 11 consecutive months, including the last eight months of declines avergaging 11 percent. According to the preliminary report, sales tax collections from mid-December to mid-January totaled $17.77 million, a 9.8-percent drop from $19.7 million for the same month last year. Use taxes, which businesses and others pay on purchases of equipment from out-of-state vendors, were above the budget estimate at $1.6 million. From the same period a year ago, use taxes have declined by 7.8 percent, or $135,619. “As expected, we are continuing to see sharp declines in our sales tax revenues,” Mayor Dewey Bartlett said. “Our combined receipts for both sales and use tax are slightly lower than our revised budget expectations. With the $10 million reduction to our general fund, we will continue to monitor expenses closely until the end of the year.” The general fund portion of sales and use tax totaled $1.34 million for the month, a little less than $100,000 lower than the City’s revised budget expectations. “It should be clear that the economic problems we are experiencing are the result of declining revenues due to the national recession, not any express actions by the current of previous administrations,” Bartlett added. “Both the Bartlett and Taylor administrations have collectively reduced our annual expenses by $25 million.”
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