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Fayette retail sales tumble 24%Tue, 05/12/2009 - 4:42pm
By: John Munford
February figures suggest local tax collections likely to remain in slump, mirroring state’s 21% April decrease The month of February was not kind to local governments in Fayette County that collect sales taxes for part of their annual revenues and also to fund the county’s transportation SPLOST. Both regular local option sales tax and special purpose local option sales taxes in February were down about 24 percent compared to February of last year, local governments told The Citizen this week. The sales tax drops reflect a decline in taxable sales by retailers across Fayette. The local governments’ pain is felt first by local retailers. February is the latest month for which such figures are available because of a lag in reporting time at the state level, officials said. March and April figures are likely to mirror the downward trend, since the state has seen its revenues go down as well. Governor Sonny Perdue announced this week that net revenue collections for the month of April 2009 totaled $1.399 billion, compared to $1.761 for April 2008, a decrease of $362 million or 20.6 percent. The state’s percentage decrease year-to-date for Fiscal Year 2009 compared to FY08 is 9.5 percent. The LOST revenues are critical to Fayette’s city and county governments because they are income for general fund budgets. The downturn for Peachtree City was about $39,000 short of last year’s February numbers. For Fayetteville the decrease was nearly $46,000 compared to last year. The same type of decrease was seen in February for SPLOST revenues, officials said. For Peachtree City, officials are projecting to earn $1.9 million in transportation SPLOST revenues by the end of the year as compared to the initial projections of $2.18 million, Finance Director Salvatore said. Fayetteville’s SPLOST revenue was down just less than $14,000, officials said. The city’s LOST is projected to be short about $91,000 this year even after projections were adjusted several months ago to account for the ongoing global financial crisis. Fayette County Finance Director Mary Holland said the county is projecting it will be short about 10 percent in its LOST revenues by year’s end, which calculates to about a $1 million loss. The county is also projecting its SPLOST revenues will be $1.7 million short of its initial projections by the end of this fiscal year. login to post comments
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