After a strong February of local option tax receipts, the city of Ketchum is slowly seeing tax revenues catch up to those of the previous fiscal year.
Ketchum City Clerk Sandra Cady reported that February LOT receipts, which are collected from lodging proceeds and sales of liquor by the drink, building materials and retail items, totaled $185,221, an increase of nearly 5 percent over the same month the previous year.
This brings LOT revenues for the first half of the fiscal year—which runs from October through September—to $1.05 million, about $30,000 less than for the first six months of the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
Despite the 3 percent lag from last year, the second quarter saw an increase of 3 percent. LOT collections during he first quarter were down 10 percent from the same period last year.
The city imposes a 2 percent sales tax on lodging and liquor by the glass, and a 1 percent tax on items in the other categories. The money goes to the city's general fund, helping to pay for public transit, land acquisition and public services such as police, fire and ambulance.
The taxes are charged as part of a state-approved program to help small resort cities offset the public costs of hosting large numbers of visitors.
Once again, condominium rentals proved a strong category for tax receipts, increasing by 11.25 percent over last February. This follows a January in which condo receipts were up nearly 40 percent over the same month last year.
In addition, $112,382 of retail receipts marked an 8 percent increase over February 2007. The $626,178 collected from retail receipts makes up 60 percent of all LOT receipts.
However, both building materials and liquor receipts declined for the second straight month in February when compared to the same period last year, dropping by 3.1 and 5.4 percent respectively.
For the first half of the 2007-2008 fiscal year, the city is running $68,152 over budget.
