Sales tax revenue for Haines in January through April likely set a record for the four months.
The $994,161 collected by the borough in the first months of the calendar year is by far the largest total of the past five years, marking a 44% increase over 2020 and 42% over pre-pandemic 2019 and 2018, according to a report prepared for the borough assembly by chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart.
Tax revenues are up 16% from 2021, and the number looks to be higher than tax collections for the first four months in any year going back past 2010.
Other boroughs in Alaska have seen similar upward trends. The Ketchikan Daily News reported a 21% increase in city sales tax revenue between January-April this year and the same period last year. Wrangell brought in its highest sales tax revenue ever in 2021, and is on track to break that record again this year, the Wrangell Sentinel reported.
Stuart attributes this year’s increase in Haines sales tax revenue not to a boost in tourism – since January to April aren’t big visitor months – but to higher prices. The increase “shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who filled their gas tank or bought groceries,” she said.
Stuart said she expects an even more dramatic bump in sales tax figures this summer, when higher prices will be compounded by this year’s boom in post-pandemic summer tourism.
The borough doesn’t yet have a breakdown by business activity for the early 2022 numbers, but Stuart said she expects to see a significant increase in the “petroleum and auto” category.
In addition, sales tax paid to Haines from online and remote transactions has been increasing steadily since the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2018 ruling allowed states and municipalities to enforce their collections on out-of-town sellers. Following the ruling, Alaska municipalities banded together, forming a cooperative to administer taxes on online and remote merchants.
Online sales tax revenue has risen dramatically each year since then: the Haines Borough collected $7,017 in 2018, $80,336 in 2019 and $306,032 in 2021. Alaska municipalities later banded together, forming a cooperative to administer taxes on online and remote merchants.
In 2021, retail transactions brought in 30% of the total sales tax revenue for the borough, with tours and tourist transportation businesses accounting for 6.8% in the pandemic-shortened season. In the three years before the pandemic, tourism had accounted for around 18% of the sales tax revenue annually.