This summer, sales tax dollars could tell the tale of the season

Sales tax figures for the Talkeetna Sewer and Water service area have begun to come in, and how they fare through 2021 is a reasonable indicator of how businesses are doing in Downtown.

Before 2018, there wasn’t a direct way to track how much commerce took place in Downtown Talkeetna beyond businesses volunteering information or anecdotal evidence based on how many visitors were coming through town.

Last year’s tax numbers show a very large impact to Downtown businesses.  In a normal year, the winter months are slow, with a bump in March for events like the Oosik Classic Ski Race and Tour.  The revenue really picks up when tourism season gets in gear from May through September.  Last year, all of those months brought in less than half the normal sales tax.  The lower numbers from last summer represent a missing ten million dollars in taxable revenue compared to the average.

As of now, only the data for January and February is available, as March sales tax bills aren’t due until the end of this month.  So far, the numbers hit on either side of the three-year average, with January showing higher than normal revenues, and February showing slightly lower.   Months outside of the main summer season don’t seem to have been as impacted by COVID-19, so keeping an eye on tax revenues into the summer will be one piece of seeing how the tourism economy fares with a second year of the pandemic.