The city of Rugby brought in $542,092.24 in sales tax in 2010, according to Karla Harmel, city auditor.

This is the first full year of the 2-cent sales tax rate, instead of the 1-cent sales tax rate that was in place for the first three quarters of 2009. The sales tax was increased in October of 2009.

Just this year the formula for the city infrastructure/JDA funding changed. In the past, the Rugby Job Development Authority (JDA) received 75 cents on every sales tax dollar and city infrastructure received 25 cents on every dollar. This year, because the city participated in a large road improvement project in 2009 and 2010, the formula was changed by the council to increase the city infrastructure fund to 65 percent and decrease the JDA funding to 35 percent.

The total for this year to go into the city infrastructure fund was $352,359.97 (65%). This fund will pay for 50 percent of property owners special assessments for the 2009-2010 street improvement project. The Rugby JDA fund received $189,732.27 (35%). This is the main source of income for the JDA. The JDA has been talking about finding other sources to supplement their resources.

“Working with the city on this, we knew going in we’d have less this year,” said Brenda Foster, director, JDA. “We adjusted our 2010 budget to $175,000.

She went on to say that though it looks like quite a drop, it is about $4,000 less than the 2009 JDA budget of $185,000.

In 2009, the total amount the city received from sales tax was $295,735.95. That amount included a raise of 1 cent to 2 cents in sales tax for the final quarter of the year.

In the last full year of 1-cent sales tax, which was 2008, the total amount was $266,602.20. Compare that amount with the first full year of 2-cent sales tax, which is 2010, and the amount is double the 1-cent rate plus $9,000 more at $542,092.24. It was a very good year.