Rapid City sales tax collections up 3% so far over last year

Rapid City's sales tax report through August shows the sales tax collections for the first eight months of 2024 total more than $57.2 million, a 3.16% increase over the first eight months of 2023.

In addition, the total of sales tax receipts for August set a record, with more than $8.2 million collected for the month, compared to $7.8 million received in August 2023 — a 4.11% increase.

The tourism sales tax collected in August totaled $692,535, a 12.81% increase over the tourism sales tax collections for August 2023. Tourism sales tax collections for the first eight months of the year total more than $4.1 million, a 3.8% increase over the $3.9 million collected for the first eight months of 2023.

May through August 2024 tourism sales tax receipts totaled $2.44 million compared to $2.33 million for the same four-month period of 2023.

General fund city sales tax receipts collected in August totaled $3.76 million, higher than the $3.63 million in general fund receipts collected in August 2023. The eight-month total for this category of receipts stands at nearly $26.6 million, a 3.16% increase over the $25.7 million collected for the first eight months of 2023.

"Total sales tax collections are trending just slightly lower than budgeted in recent months, however, August was a good month with a great increase over August of last year. Our tourism sales tax collections for two-thirds of the year are also running higher than for the same period in 2023 by comparison," said City Finance Director Daniel Ainslie.

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