ARLINGTON — Fueled by retail, construction and manufacturing, Arlington collected $4 million in sales taxes last year, a milestone considering the city collected just $3 million four years before.
“It’s a big deal,” said David Boulton, outgoing president of the Arlington-Smokey Point Chamber of Commerce. “It shows growth in our town and shows an encouraging future.”
From November 2006 to October 2007, the city collected $4,012,901 in sales tax. That’s $40,399 more than during than the previous 12-month period.
That’s enough to fund the entire Arlington Police Department — including police cars, equipment, salaries and benefits for 27 commissioned officers and 6 1/2 civilian employees — for a year.
Boulton and assistant city administrator Kristin Banfield attribute the increase largely to Arlington’s growth. New housing developments, business parks and retail stores have brought more people and money to the city.
The addition of “big box” stores to Lakewood, including Costco, Michaels and Best Buy, has enabled more Arlington residents to do most of their shopping heading south on I-5, Boulton said. While sales tax dollars from those stores go to Marysville, Boulton believes that shoppers headed that way often stop at stores in Smokey Point.
“They don’t have to drive as far to go to stores like Best Buy, Michaels and Linens ‘n Things,” said Boulton, a lifelong Arlington resident and owner of Flowers by George. “There’s more choices of restaurants in the area. They’re not having to drive a half-hour to find what they need. It’s closer to home.”
Sales tax makes up 36 percent of the city’s $11.5 million general operations budget.
Though sales tax dollars could completely fund the police department, the money is instead divided up among various departments and used to cover an array of expenses, including building inspections, salaries and playground equipment.
While Arlington gets the bulk of its sales tax money from retail trade, the city also generates substantial money from construction and services such as accounting.
Some city officials had feared that lengthy construction work on Olympic Avenue in downtown Arlington would cause businesses to close and sales tax collection to drop in 2007.
The upswing in sales despite closed streets and sidewalks illustrates the attachment some Arlington shoppers have with local businesses, said Arlington economic development manager Vic Ericson.
In its 2008 budget, the city estimated it will get $3,935,280 in sales taxes. However, with many economists forecasting a national recession, city officials aren’t comfortable predicting the future of sales tax in Arlington.
Reaching $4 million is great; now the city needs to do what it can to keep building on that number, Ericson said.
“It’s kind of like a benchmark,” he said. “We’ve hit that benchmark and now we’ll see where we go from here.”
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
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