SEQUIM — A surge in Sequim’s sales tax revenue that started last summer — months before the openings of Wal-Mart and The Home Depot — is continuing.
Collections in the first four months of 2005 posted an average 63.2 percent increase over the same period last year.
And revenues are an average 77 percent greater than those at the same time in 2003.
Collections through April totaled $662,435 on sales of $77.9 million — already 44 percent of the almost $1.5 million collected in city coffers in 2004.
There is a lag between the time of the individual sale and the time the tax revenue is deposited in the city’s account.
The current numbers reflect sales through February, which city data has tracked to be one of the slower months for revenues.
Wal-Mart opened its west-side store in late November, and The Home Depot began operating about two months later.
The city of Sequim receives 85 cents for every $100 of taxable sales made inside the city limit.
City Manager Bill Elliott said that even with the strong percentage growth, the amount of additional money in the city treasury would be relatively modest — and that infrastructure and other public needs will eat up any surplus that materializes.
