City Of Tulsa Sales Tax Collections Above November Budget Estimates

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma -- While the city of Tulsa's sales tax revenue for November was down by $925,000 compared to October, it was slightly over a $1 million more than for the same month a year ago.

In a news release from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the city of Tulsa's check after expenses was $16,177,942.

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett says sales tax collections are above the budget estimates for the month.

Bartlett says he is still cautious about being too optimistic at this point, because the gain is partially attributed to an increased effort to collect overdue sales taxes.  

"We certainly welcome the increases in sales tax collections, and we applaud the Oklahoma Tax Commission on its efforts to improve on the collection of delinquent taxes," said Dewey Bartlett. "But it is important to note that without the additional collections we would still just be about even with last year, when revenues were significantly below previous years."

Last month, the OTA says Tulsa took in $17,103,619 in sales tax net revenue. A year ago November, sales tax net revenue was $15,170,427.

10/7/2010 Related story: Tulsa Sales Tax Collections Up From 2009

Tulsa's Finance Director Mike Kier says for the first four months of the fiscal year, resulted in collecting an additional $1.6 million for the city of Tulsa.

"Without those additional collections of delinquent taxes, and in some cases taxes that were owed for several years, we would not be ahead of last year," Mike Kier said. 

Kier noted that the $1.6 million reflects the additional collections for the July-October disbursements to Tulsa and not for the November check.