An upswing in sales tax from tourism and construction helped offset a dip in retail sales, boosting Haines Borough sales tax income 2 percent in 2014.

Taxable sales last year reached $52.4 million.

The increase seems to defy previously held speculation that sales tax income was largely decided by the price of fuel: When the price of fuel went up, so did borough sales tax income.

The local price of fuel held steady or declined in 2014, which may account for a 1 percent drop in retail sales boroughwide, said chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart. It’s the first drop in the retail category in five years.

But that was more than offset by a 74 percent increase in sales tax from construction and a 7 percent increase from tourism, according to borough figures.

Lutak Lumber owner Chip Lende said the construction figures track roughly with what he’s seen.

“We never saw a decrease, despite the gloom and doom that was predicted. We haven’t seen it. It’s been steady all along,” Lende said.

A local real estate and building boom that ended in 2008 was followed by a spate of government projects funded by the Alaska Legislature. Government work, however, is exempt from sales tax.

More recently, the Lower 48 economy down south has picked up, and Haines is seeing more private-sector construction spending and associated tax income, Lende said.

Lodging sales in 2014 remained the same as 2013, and business at eating and drinking places dropped 1 percent, according to borough figures.

Stuart said the increase in tax income from tourism appears to track directly with an increase in visitors arriving on the fast ferry from Skagway last summer. The number of fast ferry passengers increased by 5,000 to 37,600 in 2014.

Fast ferry passengers spend an average of $135 in Haines, compared to $85 for passengers arriving here aboard cruise ships.

Factoring in the increase in shuttle passengers with the $135 multiplier, then subtracting last year’s drop of about 2,500 cruise passengers results in numbers that line up neatly with the increase in sales tax revenue in the tourism category, Stuart said.

The increase in sales taxes means an additional $52,000 to the borough.