Aberdonians appear to be on a buying binge. What we couldn’t spend at the bars amidst coronavirus we’ve apparently poured into other taxable purchases at astoundingly higher rates than last year:
While some cities have taken a hit in sales tax revenues, Aberdeen has seen an atypical amount of growth the last three months.
April’s report showed a 20.89% increase, May was up 18.57% and June was up 28.27%.
City Finance Officer Karl Alberts said each of these reports combines the city’s 2% sales tax and its 1% bed, board and booze tax, which is seeing a year-to-date decrease. While the 2% sales tax is split between the general operation of the city and capital projects, the BBB tax is revenue that’s set aside for the city’s promotion fund [Elisa Sand, “Aberdeen Sales Tax Receipts Continue to Climb Amid Pandemic,” Aberdeen American News, 2020.07.12].
Remember: the June report shows May sales tax collections, May shows April, April shows March.
A lot of that growth appears to be coming from manufacturing:
While it’s tough to pinpoint exactly where the growth in sales tax is coming from, Alberts said one area that’s seen significant growth is in manufacturing. Those taxable sales have shown a significant spike. The 2019 sales tax reports show taxable sales, with the exception of one month where they were about $226,000, ranged from $2.7 million to $4.65 million.
This year, taxable sales for manufacturing have been much higher — $14.1 million in April, $18.47 million in May and $26.4 million in June [Sand, 2020.07.12].
Keep spending your money in Aberdeen… but hey, wear a 3M mask when you do.