Sales tax up in Dodge for 2012

"Some people look at a city's sales tax and use that as a gauge for
how the local economy is doing," Nannette Pogue, the city clerk said
Tuesday. If that's the case then Dodge City's economy is doing just
fine.
So far year-to-date, sales tax has increased in Dodge 8.21 percent
over last year.
Dodge City's sales tax is 8.95 cents.
"Sales tax is made up of several different things," Pogue, "there's
the state tax, which is 6.3, the city tax 1.0, the county, 1.5 and the
special district tax, .15."
Of all those taxes the city receives the city sales tax, and a portion
of the county tax. They have received $4,515,592 from the city sales
tax and $3,230,376 from their portion of the county sales tax.
Pogue attributes the increase to several different things.
"Prices have gone up, and that's part of why our sales tax has
increased," she said. "But our hotels have been full consistently,
there's more business here in Dodge and there have been a lot of
events throughout the year that have brought people here."
One of the most successful months was September, when businesses were
reporting their sales for August, which of course was when Dodge City
Days took place. July was another big month for the city, probably due
to tourist season really taking off in June, and March was also a good
month, Pogue said she's not sure what happened to make sales increase
then though.
Half of the money the city receives from the sales tax goes towards
what they call the 'general fund'. This includes the police
department, fire department, and other city services.
"We don't break the money up more than that," Pogue said. "We just put
half into that general fund."
The other half goes towards 'Why Not Dodge? projects, such as Legends
Field, the race track, the arena and conference center.
Pogue also noted that the city hasn't raised its sales tax in a number
of years, and it is about 25 percent of the revenue collected by the
city.