The City of Kenai saw increased sales tax revenues for their third quarter according to a report from the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
Kenai City Manager Rick Koch…
Koch: “Taxable sales increased by 3.67% over the previous year third quarter and that’s continued good news. We’ve seen a market increase in taxable sales over the last two years.”
Koch says the figures that came back from last quarter, which ended September 30, were twice as high as the city had budgeted.
Koch: “It’s signs of a healthy economy, it’s signs of healthy businesses here that folks are buying.”
Kenai’s strong economy stands in contrast with the state’s projected multi-million deficit.
Koch says much of this extra income will be put aside to replenish decreasing funds coming from the state.
Koch: “We expect that money to go away, this then can be looked at as a replacement or at least a help for the loss of those other revenues so that we’re not having to make hard decisions on services.”
He says Kenai’s economy has been growing faster than the borough average although he’s not entirely sure why.