WINONA – In just over four years after Walmart chose to shut the doors of its Winona location, sales tax in the City of Winona has rebounded.
In last Tuesday’s meeting of the Winona Mayor and Board of Aldermen, Mayor Jerry Flowers informed the board of aldermen that sales tax in Winona is up substantially, nearly that of when Walmart, which was closed in January 2018 by the corporate office due to “consumer trends,” according to a Walmart official, and Fred’s Family Dollar, which closed in 2019 due to corporate bankruptcy, were both in operation.
According to Winona City Clerk June Williams, from October 2016 through June 2017, which included 12 months of sales tax from Walmart and Fred’s, averaged $87,997.65 per month in sales tax returns. The next year, from October 2017 through June 2018, which included sales tax from Walmart for only half the year, averaged $86,650, a decrease of 1.57 percent annually.
From October 2018 through June 2019, the city averaged $77,375.59 in collected sales tax, a decrease of 11.98 percent. For the year, the city saw a decrease of $132,000 in sales tax.
Williams said the fiscal year spanning October 2019 through June 2020 saw a decrease of another .24 percent in sales tax, but in the months of April through June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, the city saw a spike in sales tax numbers. More specifically, April showed an 8.17 percent increase, May showed a 6.27 percent increase, and June showed a 12.24 percent increase.
“Sales tax numbers started coming back in April 2020 due to COVID,” Williams said. “We only had a decrease for the year of .24 percent, which would have been a lot more without those four months. People were shopping local.”
From October 2020 to date, Williams said sales tax has increased every single month “astronomically.” With just nine months of sales tax figures being reported, the city is seeing an increase of 14.16 percent from the year before.
“The average year to date for nine months is $86,465.97,” Williams said. “That is under $2,000 less per month than when Walmart was open.”
Williams said the city’s sales tax rebound can be attributed to several factors: new businesses opening in Winona, fewer rained out baseball/softball tournaments at the Winona Recreational Park due to the new turf infields, and a very successful Christmas season for Winona retailers.
Sales tax for December 2020 showed an increase of $20,000 or 20.8 percent over the year before. Williams said for local sales tax returns, which equals 18 percent of the seven percent of sales tax collected by local businesses, to increase that much, retail sales in Winona had to be outstanding. According to Williams’ calculations, total sales for the city of Winona for the month of December increased $1.6 million, up to $7,686,177 in 2020 from $6,047,729 in 2019.
Even sales tax returns from January 2021, a historically low month for sales tax returns according to Williams, were up 17.29 percent, and in February, they were up 5.55 percent.
March and April’s sales tax returns showed enormous growth – growth Williams said is due to tournament play at Winona Recreational Park. Last year, there was no tournament play at the park due to COVID-19. New turf fields were installed at the end of 2019, which allow fields to drain quickly and alleviate the need in many cases to cancel tournaments due to rain. With the pandemic putting a halt to most tournaments in 2020, the city is just now seeing the benefits of the new fields.
In March, sales tax increased 18.9 percent, and in April, it increased 19.57 percent. Williams said by looking at the sales tax increases alone, it is hard to determine if tournament play is the reason for the increase. However, the city’s two percent tourism tax on prepared food and beverages does show the correlation between tournaments and the local economy. In March, the two percent tourism tax increased 28.21 percent, and in April, it was up 24.19 percent.
“Last spring, the two percent tourism tax decreased two percent,” Williams said. “That is because of COVID and no tournaments at the park.”
Flowers said the sales tax rebound could not have happened without the support of local citizens.
“I’d like to thank the citizens of Winona from the bottom of my heart for shopping local and supporting our community,” Flowers said. “We at the city, in cooperation with Winona Main Street, are seeing the fruits of our hard work, and there are even more businesses coming to the city of Winona.”
Encouraging citizens to shop local has been a priority of the city for many years, Flowers said. The city has organized an annual shop local campaign during the holiday season and partnered with the Winona Business and Professional Association to promote local business through special events.
Flowers also announced this week that the vacant Walmart building in Winona will soon be vacant no longer. He reported that plans are in the works to lease the building to a retail establishment, however, he would not elaborate due to confidentiality.
