Sales and lodgers tax
General sales tax collections fell 4.4 percent and lodgers tax fell 4.8 percent in September compared with the previous month, according to city documents.
“Those are surprising numbers,” said Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Business Improvement District.
The downturn in the Farmington economy, the political uncertainty before the presidential elections, and the growth of internet sales could have contributed to the downturn, he said.
In June, July and August the general sales taxes were on a steady upward track.
During that period, the central business district made almost $200 million in sales, he said.
“It was a good summer for downtown,” he added.
The north Main Avenue corridor also saw gains, increasing by 10.6 percent in September.
Walsworth could not explain the north Main anomaly because the city does not break out all the industry sectors for this area to protect the data of the small number of businesses there.
The September slowdown was not the first this year. Sales lagged during May and April before the tourist season.
But the general sales trend remains ahead of last year by 2.6 percent.
At Sticks and Stones, Micki Hassemer said she saw an upward tick in sales this summer compared with last year.
“Looking at our overall summer numbers, it was great,” she said.
She is unconcerned by some of the empty store fronts along Main, many vacated this year.
“If I was consistently hearing the market was consistently bad I would be more concerned,” Hassemer said.
Lodgers tax collections also are up so far this year by 3.6 percent.
“I would be careful making any judgments from one month,” said Peter Marshall, the general manager of the DoubleTree, pointing to the overall growth of the sector.
The end of the year is always a busy time for visitors, and he expects that will be the case again, but weather could give it a boost.
“The wild card sometimes is snow. We’ll have to see what the snow does,” he said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
