SILOAM SPRINGS -- City sales tax receipts were up 16 percent in April compared to the same month last year.
Sales tax receipts were $671,503 in April 2020, up $94,756 from $576,747 in April 2019, according to the May issue of City & Town magazine.
County sales tax receipts for Siloam Springs were up 10 percent, from $250,113 in Apri 2019 to $276,650 in April this year.
The numbers actually represent taxes collected from sales in February and dispersed in April, so they don't reflect the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic, City Administrator Phillip Patterson said. Businesses report sales tax collection to the state and it takes a couple of months for the taxes to be processed and dispersed to the city, he said.
Patterson said he doesn't expect to see the impact of covid-19 closimgs, which began in mid-March, on city sales tax receipts until May numbers are published.
The city's sales tax receipts come from its 2 percent sales tax. The total sales tax rate in Siloam Springs is 9.5 percent.
City sales tax receipts are used for utility infrastructure, repayment of wastewater treatment plant bonds, the city's general fund, public safety and the street department.
A share of county sales tax receipts pays on two water utility infrastructure bonds.
Other cities that saw an increase in city sales tax receipts were:
• Bentonville, up 6 percent to $2.24 million
• Eureka Springs, up 20 percent to $170,153
• Fayetteville, up 10 percent to $3.56 million
• Gentry, up 88 percent to $106,950
• Lincoln, up 15 percent to $44,512
• Rogers, up 9 percent to $3.12 million
• Springdale, up 13 percent to $2.59 million.
NW News on 05/27/2020