Democracy on the Front Lines
City Administrator’s Blog
Walter Denton
November 30, 2009
I have mentioned several times over the years that the City’s annual budget is dependent on sales tax. 48% of General Fund revenues come from sales tax. We know that most of those revenues come from car dealers, but we do not know how much sales tax comes from each individual business. The Illinois Department of Revenue is either unable or unwilling to give us the data on each business’ sales tax contributions.
For the first time, however, the Department of Revenue has released to us the top 15 sales tax generators in O’Fallon. We do not have the total amounts, but at least we know which businesses generated the most sales tax.
As expected, most of the car dealers make the list. Auffenberg Chrysler is on the list but is now closed, so a new store will be on next year’s top 15. It is interesting that Quik Trip and Walgreens bring more sales tax than the Mazda, Kia, and Volkswagen dealers. They obviously do substantial volume to achieve similar sales levels as the car dealers.
Since the report did not reveal how much sales tax each business generated, here are the top 15 sales tax generators from May 2008 through April 2009 (in alphabetical order):
American TV and Appliance
Auffenberg Chrysler (now closed)
Auffenberg Ford
Auffenberg Hyundai
Auffenberg Nissan
Hart Food & Drug (now Schnucks)
Home Depot
Jack Schmitt Cadillac Saab
Jack Schmitt Chevrolet
Meyer Honda
Newbold Toyota Scion BMW
Quik Trip
Sam’s Club
Walgreens
Wal-Mart
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