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Sales tax collections went up this month in the City of Bartlesville.

Finance Director Jason Muninger said that it was only a slight increase and that it was not an increase like the City has seen in past months. He added that any increase is positive though.

Overall collection was up just slightly over half a percent. Muninger said that means the sales tax collection is up about $8,500 more than this time last year.

That factors in the reserve for the Silver Lake Shopping Center. That increases due to the amount the City of Bartlesville had to rebate last year versus this year.

The slight rise for the month is just under one-percent or $13,000. The reserve or tax increment financing (TIF) district mentioned by Muninger is used to construct the new Silver Lake Shopping Center.

City Manager Mike Bailey said there was an agreement that part of that finance package would set aside a certain amount of all of the sales tax that is generated in the site. He said assuming everything goes as planned, the City will get that back at the end of the debt service. It is essentially a security for the banks.

For the Fiscal Year as a whole, Muninger said the City of Bartlesville's sales tax percentage sits just under 2.5-percent. That includes the rebate.

Bailey said that is not as good as what the City of Bartlesville is seeing across the State. He said Bartlesville is “lagging” and they do not know why.

That being said, the Bailey said the City has done everything that they could when it came to buying retail.

After talking with treasurers from Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Bailey said municipalities across the State have grown about six-percent with part of that growth being driven by Tulsa and Oklahoma City. He said Bartlesville is fairly normal when it comes to cities of its size like Ponca City and Muskogee.

Back in March, Muninger said that last fiscal year only saw a three-quarter of a percent in growth. The two years prior to that the City of Bartlesville saw negative growth with its sale tax.

Muninger and the City of Bartlesville are happy to see a slow, steady and positive sales tax growth.