City Sales Tax Collections Continue to Strengthen
Posted/updated on: May 12, 2011 at 12:23 pm
TYLER — Information from the Texas Comptroller indicates that City of Tyler sales tax revenues deposited for the month of May have increased 2.61 percent as compared to May 2010, resulting in a 3.14 percent cumulative year-to-date increase. The reported revenue of $3,307,846.99 comprises $ 2,205,231.33 general sales tax revenue and $1,102,615.66 half-cent sales tax revenue. The figures represent receipts from March 2011 collections as there is a two-month lag before taxes are reported and remitted back to the City from the State.
“Each month we are seeing steady, incremental growth in our sales tax revenues as compared to where we were last year,” said City Manager Mark McDaniel. “The 3.14 percent year-to-date increase represents about $608,000 in additional revenue, compared to budgeting figures, to provide for General Fund services, like police, fire and parks.”
The City is already into its 2011-2012 budget preparation cycle. Individual departments are preparing budgets that will be submitted to the City Manager in May, and staff-level budget hearings will take place in May and June; the final proposed budget will be presented to the City Council on August 10, 2011. “We anticipate this will be another tight budget year,” added McDaniel. “We made many cuts last year to offset significantly lower revenue – without dramatically affecting service levels. We are still recovering from those cuts in staffing and the delay of projects. Basically, we will be looking at a ‘maintenance budget’ with no new programming or costly initiatives.”
