The City of Tulsa’s sales tax collections for mid-May to mid-June, as reported by the Oklahoma Tax Commission, are slightly below last year’s totals but higher than predicted.

Actual tax received is $16.35 million, or 0.9 percent below the $16.5 million collected during the same period last year. The budget estimate for the period was $15.61 million.

Use taxes collected for the mid-May to mid-June period totaled $1.4 million. That was down 2.02 percent from the $1.43 million collected for the same period last year and is 1.59 percent above the projected amount of $1.38 million.

“This is the second consecutive month we have seen a slight increase in our sales tax collections in over a year, and we are still remaining cautious with our budget estimates and funds promised for restoring certain services this fiscal year,” said Mayor Dewey Bartlett. “The last thing we want to do is to commit to spend money on certain capital and ongoing items, when we may not have the money to cover it down the road. We have to remain prudent with our expenditures, as it is too soon to determine if sales tax collections will either stay flat or decrease within a few months.”

“While we are still seeing a decline in both sales taxes and use taxes, the declines are lower than anticipated levels,” said City Finance Director Mike Kier. “It gives us some hope that we won’t have to make additional budget cuts later in the year.”

A $555 million budget was approved for the fiscal year that began July 1. Last year a $578 million budget was first proposed, but declining sales tax revenues led former Mayor Kathy Taylor to reduce the budget to the $567 amount approved by the council. Then, in October, an additional $6 million was cut.

After the current administration took over in December, additional budget cuts had to be made to maintain a balanced budget.