Steamboat Springs Colorado Looking Good For Sales Tax Revenues

Steamboat Springs, Colorado is looking pretty positive for their fiscal review. The final revenue report released this past week shows “Steamboat Springs’ 2011 sales tax collections increased about $12,000, to $17.3 million.”

According to the report, “December 2011 sales tax collections increased by 3.69% from sales tax collections for the month of December ’10. Year-to-date total sales tax collections are 4.38% higher than those of 2010 year-to-date.” Of the various sales categories, miscellaneous retail (sales tax) is the highest source of sales tax revenue overall at 47%. Retail sales tax collections increased by 5.08% overall for the calendar year. Second highest source of sales tax revenue was from lodging and amenities, showing a 5.85% increase. However, retail sales brought in 1.1 million, while lodging and amenities netted $464,000—less than half of the total revenue collected from retail.

The city originally budgeted “…for a 10 percent decline in 2011, …[and ended up] collecting in excess of $2.7 million more than the nearly $14.6 million it projected to generate in sales taxes last year.” Budgets change, and in Steamboat Springs “…a supplemental budget request in July to use nearly $750,000 in excess revenue to pay for some unexpected higher costs of providing services” bit into that unexpected increase. Those costs included “…revenue paid for increased fuel costs, additional snowplowing and mitigation for last year’s high spring runoff.” Additional funds beyond that supplemental budget request included supporting “…the Bike town USA Initiative, …capital expenditures at the Mountain Fire Station, …Transit and Parks, Open Space and  Recreational Services departments and …unplanned maintenance.”

The city plans to budget for a 5% reduction in revenues based on 2011 results.