East Peoria collected $108,000 more sales tax revenue last October compared to the same time in 2012. That’s according to preliminary numbers shared at last night’s City Council meeting.
At the beginning of last year’s budget cycle, the city projected a two-percent growth in additional sales tax. But some commissioners question whether the increase is due to new businesses opening in the downtown Levee District, or existing stores. Commissioner Gary Densberger says it’s tough to tell:
“Some of that is new sales tax revenue from new outlets such as Target that wasn’t included in those numbers last year. So certainty that’s a piece of it. But it’s difficult to make it as clean as some of the commissioners would like it to be simply because sales tax revenues from the state are reported in the aggregate. They are in no way broken down by who collected it.”
The city only has numbers through October. The state returns sales tax receipts on a three month delay. Densberger says that leaves the two largest retail months of the year out of the equation for now, with the hope of having a firmer estimate next month.