Siloam Springs sales taxes remain in double digits for September

SILOAM SPRINGS — Sales tax receipts were up double digits in September for the third month in a row.

The city received $783,533 in sales tax receipts in September, up $74,123 or 10.4% from September 2019, according to the October issue of City & Town magazine. The receipts represent sales made in July.

Sales tax receipts for August, representing sales made in June, were up 20.6% and sales tax receipts for July, representing sales made in May, were up 20.5%. Sales tax receipts were also up double digits in February, March, April and May.

So far this year, sales tax receipts are up a cumulative total of 13.7% when compared to the same time period last year, according to City Administrator Phillip Patterson.

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

County sales tax receipts for Siloam Springs were up $67,742 or 21.6%, from $313,175 in September 2019 to $380,917 in September 2020.

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 in Northwest Arkansas that saw an increase in sales tax receipts were:

• Bentonville, up 44.6% to $3.76 million

• Fayetteville, up 5.6% to $4.01 million

• Gentry, up 25% to $135,082

• Lincoln, up 19.5% to $51,976

• Rogers, up 1.7% to $ 3.48 million

• Springdale, up 16.1% to $3.11 million.

Cities that saw a decrease were:

• Eureka Springs, down 1.36% to $293,689.