Cities' sales tax revenue slows
Wal-Mart gives some a boost
Cities' sales tax revenue slows

By Micah Gamino

Published: June 7, 2008

May sales tax reports show March and April were slow months for businesses in several metro-area cities compared with the returns from a year ago.

The Oklahoma Tax Commission's May report is based on transactions completed March 16 to April 15.

The report shows negative growth or growth of less than 2 percent compared with the May 2007 report for Edmond, El Reno, Guthrie, Harrah, Mustang, Newcastle, Nichols Hills, Norman, Oklahoma City, Purcell and Shawnee.

Three cities with higher sales tax rates this year — Blanchard, Moore and Yukon — showed positive growth of 26 percent, 19 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

Chandler showed the strongest growth among cities without a new tax rate. The city's sales tax increased 25 percent over last year with a check for $196,898.

"It's been nice to see the sales tax up,” Finance Director Jan Neufeld said. "We've got lots of things we'd like to do for the city.”

She suspects tax revenues are up because of a Wal-Mart Supercenter that opened in March.

Kingfisher continued its healthy growth trends for the year with a 23 percent increase over May 2007.

Finance Director Anita James said construction of Kingfisher Regional Hospital helped prop up the city's May returns. The price tag on the project is $20 million.

"One can assume it's new construction, but it could be that local businesses that sell durable goods are doing more business,” she said.

Kingfisher's growth for the year has largely been supported by a new Wal-Mart, new housing and a new McDon-alds, James said.

Norman, another city working with a 3 percent tax rate, grew almost 2 percent with a check for $70,515 over May 2007. The city's growth was almost 4 percent in April.

Finance Director Anthony Francisco said a weak national economy is slowing business coming into the city.

"Be it psychological or in reality, all the negative factors nationally are impacting Oklahoma,” he said.

In Edmond, Finance Officer Kelly Neal said the city is still showing growth over last year. However, the city's year-over-year growth of 3.8 percent falls short of revised projections of 4.5 percent. The city began the fiscal year with a budget projection of 7 percent.

For May, Edmond is down 1.3 percent compared with May 2007 with a check for $3.41 million. Last year, the city brought in nearly $3.46 million. Reports show the city's biggest drop is in furniture and furnishings where revenues were 31 percent lower than in May last year.

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