Jenks budget committee recommends changes to biannual budget after mall-driven sales-tax surge

Jenks — The Jenks Budget Committee on Monday reviewed proposed adjustments to the city’s FY2024–26 biannual budget and voted to recommend the package to the full City Council, after staff reported higher-than-expected sales and use tax receipts tied to the new outlet mall.

City finance staff told the committee that, as of May, Jenks had collected about $15.4 million in sales and use tax against a $16.5 million budgeted target for the fiscal year. Staff said average monthly sales-tax receipts this year are roughly $1.4 million and estimated June collections at about $1,488,000, which would bring the fiscal-year total to roughly $16.87 million.

The budget presentation attributed most of the projected increase for the coming fiscal year to a full year of mall collections. Staff said they added roughly $1.1 million to next year’s sales-tax forecast and attributed about 75% of that bump to the mall operating for a full 12 months; the remaining increase was described as a modest gain across other sales- and use-tax sources. Finance staff told the committee they were deliberately conservative in estimating growth for non-mall sales tax (about 0.5%) and use tax (about 2%), given broader regional trends.

Why it matters: The outlet mall’s receipts have materially…