Despite a slight decline in sales tax revenue in 2020, the city of Roanoke is on track to meet or exceed expectations for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
For May 2021, Roanoke reported $2.1 million in sales tax revenue compared to $1.4 million in 2020. This latest number also surpasses revenue from 2018 and 2019—$1.3 million was collected in 2018 and $1.8 million in 2019.
“We are actually currently ahead of where we were at the same point last year,” said Vicki Rodriquez, director of fiscal and administrative services. “We're still seeing an upward trend in our sales tax where we're not really losing any ground. Even during the pandemic, we haven't really lost any ground.”
Rodriquez attributes Roanoke’s success to the city’s diverse tax base, which allowed the city to not rely on a sole source of revenue.
