Monthly City Sales Tax Figures Up

TYLER — Tyler’s sales tax revenues deposited for the month of July have grown 9.34% as compared to July 2011. This has resulted in a 2.31% cumulative year-to-date increase. According to a city news release, in a review of the detailed payment information, the current period collections represent a 6.42% increase and prior period collections (primarily audit and prior period related collections) amounted to a 2.92% increase for the total of 9.34%.

The reported revenue of $2,844,191.49 is comprised of $1,896,127.66 general sales tax revenue and $948,063.83 half-cent sales tax revenue. The figures represent receipts from May 2012 collections as there is a two-month lag before taxes are reported and remitted back to the City from the State.

“We are very pleased to see a jump after seeing revenues in the last few months incrementally go up and down,” said City Manager Mark McDaniel. “The year-to-date increase of 2.31 percent is still below our budget of 3 percent growth; so, at this time, we will continue with the soft hiring freeze that was put in place as a precautionary measure to ensure we are keeping our expenses in balance with current revenues. In addition, we will continue the postponement of employee pay adjustments until we reach our goal of 3 percent growth and we are approaching our expenditures and next year’s budget in a very conservative manner.”