Lost in all the excitement in last week’s budget cuts was that the the city collected $20.3 million in sales tax in June, which was $3.7 million less than expected – a 15.4 percent difference. In eight of the nine months this year, the percentage difference between what was budgeted and what was collected has been in double digits. In addition, this was the least amount the city has collected in the month of June since June 2004.
For the year, we’re 11.3 percent off the budget projection. The sales tax chart is here. The sales tax accounts for abut 20 percent of the city budget; much of the rest comes from property tax receipts. The months listed on the comptroller web site are, for accounting purposes, two months ahead. That means the August figure on the site is for June, the July figure is for May, and so forth.
