Naperville projects boost in sales tax revenues

Naperville officials are predicting an upswing in the local economy based on improving sales tax revenues.

The city’s sales tax receipts are up 11 percent from this time last year, leading officials to believe the city could collect $26.3 million in sales taxes by the end of the fiscal year this spring — a number not seen since 2008.

“Predictions of a double dip recession have ceased and we have growing confidence that the upsides in the first eight months’ performance can be maintained as well as some further upside in the remaining months of (fiscal year 2011),” Finance Director Karen DiAngeles wrote in a memo to City Manager Doug Krieger.

The roughly $750,000 increase will help contribute to closing next year’s projected city budget gap to $1.2 million, officials said.

So far, Krieger said, revenues are up from last year in each of the current fiscal year’s nine months.

“This is a tremendous trend as the revision of sales tax revenues will reduce the fiscal 2012 deficit to $1.2 million,” Krieger said. “We’re beyond being cautiously optimistic at this point. Combined with improvements we’ve seen in our local unemployment numbers, we are very encouraged.”

Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce President & CEO John Schmitt was excited to hear about the growth.

“We’ve been hearing about receipts coming in higher but this is the first time we’ve heard an actual number from the city,” Schmitt said. “That truly is great news.”

Schmitt said the Downtown Naperville Alliance also saw an increase of 6 percent in the number of Downtown Naperville gift cards purchased in December 2010 from December 2009.

Schmitt said it could be months before the city learns what sectors contributed to the boost, but he feels everyone had a hand in it.

“People say everything seems to be up slightly across the board,” he said. “Car dealers are reporting better sales than in years and word is the restaurants had good holiday seasons.”

Sales managers at several Naperville car dealerships confirmed they saw slight to moderate increases in sales from last year.