LAYTON -- For the first time in 22 months, Layton city is showing a year-over-year increase in sales tax revenues.
The June monthly report reveals the amount of sales tax collected in the city is up over the total collected for that same month in 2009, City Finance Director Steve Ashby told the city council in a Thursday night work meeting.
That news is particularly good for Layton, since sales tax revenues make up 21.35 percent of the city's overall budget, Mayor Steve Curtis said.
Layton collected just more than $10.2 million in sales tax revenues in fiscal year 2009-10, putting it just short of its earlier projected budget estimate of $10.4 million.
However, early on city leaders were concerned those tax revenues would fall way short of that projected estimate after the city began experiencing 12 percent to 14 percent monthly decline over the previous fiscal year. Those figures began to flatten out, giving city leaders hope the gap between actual receipts and projections would narrow.
City leaders speculated the positive swing in the sales tax revenues was due to the increase in auto sales and building supply sales based on the city's housing construction being up.
Ashby warned city sales tax revenues could still experience some ups and downs.
"It is still going to cork us up and down," he said of the economy.
But like the council, Ashby agrees the June sales tax figures are good news because the figures allow the city to finish the previous fiscal year in better shape than leaders had initially anticipated.
The city finished the 2009-10 fiscal year down $349,000 from its original estimated budget, Ashby said.
"Fairly good," Ashby said in summarizing the city's finish for the past fiscal year.
"It's great," Councilman Renny Knowlton said of the news.
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