Area seeing increased sales tax collections

   The national economic downturn may have begun sometime in 2007, but it did not affect Dodge City's sales tax collections last year.
    The city's sales tax receipts rose again in 2008, continuing a general trend that began in 1999, City Clerk Nannette Pogue said Tuesday.
    "If you notice, we were almost 4 percent over where we were in 2007, and 2007 was a very good year for us," she told the Community Facilities Advisory Board. "So the sales tax receipts continued very strong."
     Pogue said that sales tax receipts in 2007 were almost 10 percent higher than they were in 2006. She said as a rule, receipts had risen steadily each year since the "Why Not Dodge" sales tax was fully implemented in 1999 — although they dropped slightly in 2001, 2002 and 2003 before rebounding in 2004.
    Pogue's announcement was good news for the CFAB, which studies proposals for spending proceeds from the "Why Not Dodge" sales tax and makes recommendations to the Dodge City and Ford County Commissions. The city and county each collect half of the 1 percent sales tax, which won voter approval in 1997.
    The sales tax generated about $6.97 million for the city alone in 2006, and that figure rose to $7.72 million in 2007. Then in 2008, the sales tax generated about $8.02 million for the city.
    Pogue told the Globe on Wednesday that it was too early to tell whether the trend would continue in 2009, but she thought that it might be slightly flat. But she said even if receipts do not increase in 2009, they will still be strong.
    "2007 was a really good year for us," she said. "Like you saw, it was 10 percent above, so we were even higher in '08. Even if it goes down a little bit, you're still comparing it to really good numbers."
    Proceeds from the special sales tax pay for building and operating a series of entertainment-related projects, including the as-yet-unbuilt special events center. The city will likely issue about $40 million in bonds, backed by sales tax revenues, to cover most of the cost of building the events center.
    The city will use money from its cash reserves to cover the remaining cost of building the facility, whose cost is capped at $41.5 million.
    Pogue said that rising sales tax receipts will make it easier to sell bonds for the events center.
    "We'll issue the bonds for the construction, but we'll be financing the debt reserve, which they require, with cash we already have," she said. "So that helps sell the bonds because it makes them stronger."
   
County sales tax collections
    Ford County's sales tax receipts also increased last year, but it's too early to tell whether that will continue in 2009.
    The county took in approximately $1.83 million in sales tax receipts in 2008, up from $1.77 million in 2007. In each case, half of the total was turned over to the "Why Not Dodge" fund.
    Those amounts do not include the county sales tax for the new law enforcement center, which is figured separately.
    Ford County Treasurer Debra Pennington said the increase from 2007 to 2008 may be partly related to the tornado that slammed into Greensburg in May 2007, forcing many Greensburg residents to do business in Ford County.
    "I really feel that that had a contribution to the sales tax increase," she said.
    A comparison of sales tax receipts from January 2008 to January 2009 showed that the county received $191,115.15 in the first month of this year, up from $168,679.77 in January 2008. Those receipts reflect actual sales from December of each year.
    But receipts dropped slightly between February 2008 and February 2009, reflecting sales from the preceding month. The county expects to receive a distribution of $155,217.30 in sales tax revenues this month, down from $178,406.35 in February 2008.
    Pennington said she thought the decline might be due to the national recession, but she said she would need more information to be certain.
    "I think that it would be very misleading, though, to take that as a complete answer," she said. "Because you'd want to look at more months of collections coming in and see it, whether or not it's a trend or just maybe something that happens once in a while."
    Those amounts do not include the sales tax receipts for the new law enforcement center, which are collected separately.
    Pennington said the county collected about $2,000 less for the new jail in January and February of this year, compared to the same two-month period in 2008. But she said that was not a significant decrease, since receipts for the jail vary slightly from month to month.
    "We've been pretty consistent with the sales tax," she said. "And I would think unless there's a dramatic drop in car sales or major purchases, that it would remain consistent."

    Reach Eric Swanson at (620) 408-9917 or e-mail him at eric.swanson@dodgeglobe.com.