City facing $39,000 tax gap that may be tough to overcome

The city’s March sales tax receipts were about $5,600 below expectations—the fourth time during the first half of the current fiscal year income failed to meet budget forecasts. However, the latest income figures were $65,000 more than during the same month last year, lending credence to the notion that the fiscal year sales tax forecasts may have been overly optimistic.

For the first six months of FY 2015-16, sales taxes are $39,127.90 below the projections forecast in the current city budget.

March’s receipts reversed a two-month trend which saw sales taxes exceed forecasts, after seeing them fail to meet forecasts for the first three months of the fiscal year.

If you would like to look on the positive side, last year’s sales taxes were more than $300,000 higher in the last six months than in the first. However, if you’re a glass half-empty person, the city needs to collect a total of $747,943.80 more in the second six months of this fiscal year than it did in the first to completely erase the current gap.