Foley’s April tax reports show growth over March

By Jessica Vaughn / jessica@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 5/20/17

FOLEY – The May 15 Foley City Council meeting included a reading of the April tax reports. Each of Foley’s four tax categories (sales, gasoline, lodging and rental) increased over March.

Mike …

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Foley’s April tax reports show growth over March

Posted

FOLEY – The May 15 Foley City Council meeting included a reading of the April tax reports. Each of Foley’s four tax categories (sales, gasoline, lodging and rental) increased over March.

Mike Thompson, city of Foley administrator, oversaw the reading of the reports, starting with

sales tax which showed a strong rise over March 2017. April sales taxes were $2,025,172 compared to $1,014,242 in March, an increase of 99.6 percent over the prior month. This increase was anticipated in the budget.

Lodging taxes increased from $71,596 in March to $99,453 in April, an increase of 38.9 percent.

Rental taxes increased slightly from $23,312 in March to $24,490 in April, an increase of 5 percent. Rental tax has been steady in Foley this year due to high occupancy by construction workers, Thompson stated.

Gasoline taxes increased from $49,039 to $56,689, an increase of 15.5 percent.

“We had a pretty good month,” Thompson said. “We’re sitting right at budget, a tenth of a percentage above our budget year-to-date. We’re going into the summer season, so we’re going to see how we do over the summer, but it looks pretty good.”

The lodging tax was the only one lower in the month of April compared to April 2016. The drop was minimal and something the council had expected since Orange Beach and Gulf Shores made sure that the college students knew of the alcohol ban on the beaches.

“We did see a lodging tax drop, as did they by the way, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and us,” Thompson said. “But ours is only down a little over 3 percent for the month, and year-to-date we’re still up 12.6 percent over last year, so again, not unexpected, and we’re still looking good in terms of comparisons to last year.”

The gasoline tax also showed significant growth.

“The gasoline tax is very good; it’s grown every month since it started,” Thompson stated.

The April gasoline tax was $56,689.36, which was up $7,650.34 from March.

Tax revenue is expected to continue to rise and remain strong as Foley heads into the summer months.