2020 sales tax receipts up 13.8 percent

Siloam Springs ended the year with sales taxes up a cumulative 13.8 percent over 2019, according to City Administrator Phillip Patterson.

Sales tax receipts for December were up 12.39 percent or $85,876, from $693,380 in December 2019 to $779,256 last month, according to “City & Town” magazine. The December receipts represent sales that took place in October.

Siloam Springs has seen double digit increases in sales tax receipts for six months in a row, despite the covid-19 pandemic. Sales tax receipts were also up double digits in February, March, April and May.

Siloam Springs’ share of county sales tax receipts was up $28,919 or 9.74 percent, from $296,855 in December 2019 to $325,744 in December 2020.

Sales tax receipts are one of the factors with which city officials gauge the health of the local economy along with other factors such as construction permits and new jobs, Patterson said in August.

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 Northwest Arkansas cities that saw an increase in December were:

● Bentonville up 20.12 per cent to $2.65 million

● Eureka Springs up 14.25 percent to $331,716

● Fayetteville up 9.75 per cent to $4.16 million

● Gentry up 16.18 percent to $124,524

● Lincoln up 10.96 percent to $49,816

● Rogers up 0.88 percent to $3.49 million

● Springdale up 3.43 percent to $2.79 million