SeaTac gross sales tax income falls by $9.1M final yr; third-largest lower in Washington
The town of SeaTac had the third-largest drop in gross sales tax income final yr amongst Washington municipalities, in accordance with a brand new report from the Workplace of the Washington State Auditor.
SeaTac’s gross sales tax assortment was down greater than $9.1 million from the yr earlier than, lowering from $22.3 million to $13.2 million; a 40.8% decline.
Total gross sales tax assortment in Washington was down 4.5% final yr, for a $76.7 million decline. The auditor’s workplace, nonetheless, reported that “167 of 272 cities (that is over 60%) noticed a rise of their gross sales tax collections over pre-pandemic 2019.”
“We predict every metropolis has its personal story that explains the rise or lower,” the report stated. “We shouldn’t assume anybody issue is accountable for modifications.”
In SeaTac, the elements don’t get any larger than the Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport, for which town is called.
“Practically 42% of town is Port of Seattle property, and town has almost 6,000 lodge rooms, the second-highest variety of rooms within the state behind Seattle,” stated Kyle Moore, SeaTac’s communications supervisor. “Sea-Tac Airport journey dropped considerably, which led to lack of gross sales tax within the Common Fund, parking charge tax from the park-and-fly heaps, development gross sales tax from the airport, and lodge/motel tax, which is restricted to our lodge/motel fund.”
Moore stated town was “ready for an financial decline” due to a wet day fund with 4 months of working income created by town council in 2016.
SeaTac authorities departments prevented layoffs “by decreasing budgets, together with slicing coaching and journey” and by figuring out a cope with the union that allowed “5 furlough days that have been taken as a half-day each pay interval to restrict the monetary burden to workers in the course of the financial downturn,” Moore stated.
From the SeaTac authorities’s perspective, the worst appears to be like to be over.
“Air journey is returning to extra regular ranges and town is seeing tax income rise and method ranges seen earlier than the pandemic,” Moore stated.
Andrea Reay, president of the SeaTac-based Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce, typically agrees with that evaluation.
“We do see demand persevering with to extend, particularly at SeaTac airport as individuals return to leisure and work journey and are hopeful that as demand will increase, so will our gross sales tax income,” she stated. “As a nonprofit targeted on financial improvement and serving our small enterprise neighborhood, we want to remind everybody simply how essential it’s to buy and purchase native.”
