City of Bartlesville: October sales tax receipts show slowing growth

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - Bartlesville is showing continued -- but slowed -- growth in retail spending, according to city officials.

In October, the city received nearly $1.35 million in sales tax revenue from the state for sales occurring mostly in the last half of August and estimated sales for the first half of September. This represents a 1.46 percent increase from sales tax revenues received in October of last year and an increase of 5.97 percent from the same 4-month period last year.

“The good news is that we're still in positive territory, but the bad news is that growth of this size won't keep up with inflation,” City of Bartlesville Finance Director Mike Bailey explained, saying though revenues are expanding, the city is losing ground to increasing costs.

“Fortunately, we're in very good shape for the year and are in a much better position than we were two years ago, but until the global economy stabilizes, the city council and staff will keep spending growth restricted to levels that allow for the greatest increase in our reserve funds while maintaining service levels.”