Click to enlarge (entire doc: end-of-year-rev)
As you can see, sales tax revenue was down in growth in 2016, and 2017 isn’t probably looking much better.
Why is this? Not sure, I am certainly not an economics major, but what seems odd is that while we have grown over 3,000 people over the past year, our tax growth hasn’t been there.
As you know, there are some factors that are obvious, like low unemployment (under employment) and low paying jobs. Also the growth in shelters and food banks is a pretty obvious sign. Another thing that I think is really dipping into the sales tax growth is the lack of affordable housing (it is really at a crisis level like our growing violent crime rate). I think people are spending way to much on housing and essentials and not purchasing other goods.