Edhat StaffSanta Barbara received approximately $4.9 million in sales tax revenues during the quarter ended March 31, 2017, a 0.4% increase over the same quarter last year. Because sales tax revenues are received quarterly from the State, and one quarter in arrears, the City receives the 3rd quarter results for each fiscal year in June, which also marks the third sales tax payment for Fiscal Year 2017.
As the second largest General Fund revenue, the sales tax budget for Fiscal Year 2017 is $22,381,000. With three quarters received, sales tax revenues are approximately $16.0 million. Sales tax results for the June quarter will be available in September 2017. For additional information on recent sales tax results, click here.
The City of Santa Barbara collected approximately $1.5 million in Transient Occupancy Taxes (TOT) for the month of May. TOT revenues from hotels increased 5.7% while TOT revenues from vacation rentals fell 83% compared to the same month last year. The decline in TOT from vacation rentals is the result of the City’s efforts, beginning this year, to enforce existing zoning ordinances prohibiting vacation rentals in residential zones.
The City has collected over $17.2 million in TOT revenue in the first eleven months of the fiscal year, with total year-to-date growth of 2.9%. The Transient Occupancy Tax table can be viewed here.
