Seligman sees spike in revenue from Walmart sales
June 10,2015
Charlea Mills
When Walmart announced that they would be opening a store in Seligman, there was a lot of speculation as to how much revenue the new market would generate for the city. After five months of collecting revenue, the city is up $43.993.20 in sales tax revenue over last year’s numbers.
In 2014, the first five months of the year yielded between around $6,000 and $20,000 monthly. However, the lowest amount in revenue collected so far in 2015 was $16,743.81, but totals have been consistently between $21,000 and $25,000 since then.
For the month of May, the city collected $28,931.68, which was almost $10,000 more than 2014’s revenue of $19,595.31 in May.
With all of the additional revenue generated by stronger sales at existing businesses in 2015 and Walmart’s presence in the community, the city council will be able to plan other projects within the city with the extra revenue.
The 2015 budget was set off of prior trends. Now that significantly more revenue is coming in with the addition of Walmart in December 2014, the city will be able to allocate the funds and have a better idea of what revenue will continue to be in the future. Until taxes were being collected, the city was unaware of how much extra revenue they would see with the addition of the chain store.
The tax collected by the city is 2.25 percent. Of that, 1-cent goes to General Revenue, 1/2-cent goes to capitol improvement, 1/2-cent goes to streets and 1/4-cent goes to parks. City Clerk Brian Nichols hopes that the council approves to use part of the funds going to general revenue to clean up the city. Nichols also said that they are fixing up the bathrooms and putting on new siding.
Charlea Mills
When Walmart announced that they would be opening a store in Seligman, there was a lot of speculation as to how much revenue the new market would generate for the city. After five months of collecting revenue, the city is up $43.993.20 in sales tax revenue over last year’s numbers.
In 2014, the first five months of the year yielded between around $6,000 and $20,000 monthly. However, the lowest amount in revenue collected so far in 2015 was $16,743.81, but totals have been consistently between $21,000 and $25,000 since then.
For the month of May, the city collected $28,931.68, which was almost $10,000 more than 2014’s revenue of $19,595.31 in May.
With all of the additional revenue generated by stronger sales at existing businesses in 2015 and Walmart’s presence in the community, the city council will be able to plan other projects within the city with the extra revenue.
The 2015 budget was set off of prior trends. Now that significantly more revenue is coming in with the addition of Walmart in December 2014, the city will be able to allocate the funds and have a better idea of what revenue will continue to be in the future. Until taxes were being collected, the city was unaware of how much extra revenue they would see with the addition of the chain store.
The tax collected by the city is 2.25 percent. Of that, 1-cent goes to General Revenue, 1/2-cent goes to capitol improvement, 1/2-cent goes to streets and 1/4-cent goes to parks. City Clerk Brian Nichols hopes that the council approves to use part of the funds going to general revenue to clean up the city. Nichols also said that they are fixing up the bathrooms and putting on new siding.