Northwest Arkansas sales tax revenue up 12.29% in January report

Sales tax revenue reported in January was up 12.29% for the four largest cities in Northwest Arkansas. Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale had cumulative sales tax revenue of $8.82 million from retail sales completed in November.

Each city collects local sales tax, and 1% of that tax is reflected in this report.

Bentonville reported sales tax revenue growth of 29.13% over the year-ago period. Total revenue was $1,901 million. The city has seen its January-reported revenue rise for three of the past four years.

Springdale has the second-highest revenue increase from a year ago, up 9.71%. Revenue reported this month totaled $1.926 million and adds to the stellar 20.46% in revenue gains for all of calendar 2022. Mayor Doug Sprouse said the city is bracing for an economic slowdown this year even as inflation looks to have peaked in mid-2022. Sprouse said Springdale budgeted for 8% annual revenue growth from sales tax in 2023 and even with a slowdown, that’s a conservative number relative to the growth of the past two years.

“I don’t know if the recession will materialize or not, but we should be fine either way,” Sprouse said.

In the January report, Rogers had sales tax revenue of $2.341 million, up 8.7%. That comes on the heels of annual revenue gains of 12.97% over the 2021 calendar year. The city has budgeted this year for 10.6% annual sales tax revenue growth. That equates to a monthly revenue of $2.075 million throughout the year.

Fayetteville had sales tax revenue of $2.651 million in the January report, up 7.23% when compared to a year ago. Fayetteville had a steady growth in its sales tax revenue throughout 2022, ending the year with gains of 10.49% over 2021. City leaders have also forecast slower growth in 2023 as a result of higher interest rates and consumers being more cautious with discretionary purchases.