Sedalia’s Sales Tax Volatile, But Use Tax Strong, Shaw Says

At Monday Night's City Council Meeting, Sedalia City Administrator Kelvin Shaw updated the Council on the latest sales tax figures.

“The sales tax for August came in very strong. Year to date, we've been struggling, we've been basically staying even with year over year and we budgeted a 1.5 percent increase. So we were pleased that August came in enough to bring our year-to-date up to 1.7 percent, which is close to our 1.5 percent budget,” Shaw said.

“But really, the better news is that the use tax has been strong all year. And we're up 30 percent year over year. But of course the dollars are smaller so the dollars have been making up for what we were lagging in sales tax,” Shaw said after the meeting, adding that the Council approved a 2 ½ percent wage increase earlier this year. “So we're not struggling to find money to keep that going, but we're not finding money to do other things and add services.”

The use tax is very construction dependent, Shaw noted, and the strong figures from that is a very good sign for things to come. “It's good for the economy … hopefully it will stabilize our sales tax,” Shaw said.