NORMAN — Sales tax collections for August were up in Norman compared with last year, marking the fourth consecutive month of gains over 2009.
According to documents released by the city, sales tax revenues received Monday totaled $3,868,791, a 6.59 percent increase over August 2009.
Two months into the 2011 fiscal year, sales tax collections are up 4.11 percent, compared with last fiscal year.
City documents also show that this month’s sales tax check from the Oklahoma Tax Commission is higher than the one received in August 2008, a few months before Oklahoma significantly felt the effects of the Great Recession.
Finance Director Anthony Francisco said that while the numbers are encouraging, they’re not good enough to erase long-standing issues the city has been grappling with “for a couple of years, at least.”
“We cannot be out of the woods just on the revenue side of things,” Francisco said. “Bottom line, we have to arrest some expenditure growth. Looking at revenues ... that’s only one part of the picture.”
Francisco said the cost of doing city business has steadily increased since August 2008, especially employee salaries and benefits.
“The average city employee salary has gone up by 10 percent over the past two years, but revenues have only grown by three percent in that same time,” he said. “Expenditures have just grown a lot faster than revenues, and that’s a bottom line problem.”
Statewide, sales tax collections were up 7.4 percent compared with the same month last year, exceeding state officials’ estimates by about 6 percent, according to a report from the Associated Press.
State Treasurer Scott Meacham said all major tax revenue sources were up compared with last year, but he was especially encouraged to see the $139 million in sales tax collections.
“I believe this shows that Oklahomans are beginning to have confidence in the economic well-being of the state,” Meacham said. “As we begin the new fiscal year, the recovery of Oklahoma’s economy is obviously under way.”
Andrew Knittle 366-3540 aknittle@normantranscript.com
