Sales tax numbers rebound somewhat

Kyle has received its January sales tax receipts, the one that probably accounts for the bulk of the Christmas shopping in the city, and those receipts, for the first time this fiscal year, exceeded projections.

The actual amount received was $477,871.33, which was 4.1 percent more than what was forecast in the FY 2015-16 city budget. It still, however, leaves the city with a $48,021.01 sales tax gap for the fiscal year, although that’s certainly an improvement over the $66,830.34 the city was facing this time last month.

Interestingly, the total sales tax revenue is an impressive 23.4 percent above what it was this same last year, which makes me wonder whether the real problem might be that our budget forecasters were a tad too optimistic -- that they just wanted too much money to spend.