A fifth straight record month for net North Platte sales taxes means the city’s Quality Growth Fund has earned its full first-half allocation of $325,000 for its unusual two-part fiscal year.
Lincoln County’s long-depressed lodging-tax figures had a rare bright spot in January, too, as net January collections ran slightly ahead of the previous year for the first time since COVID-19 set in a year ago.
Nebraska Department of Revenue figures released Monday show the city will get $691,555 back for January sales taxes, shattering the month’s record of $594,031 set in 2015.
January collections, which leapt 21.6% from the same month in 2020,were the seventh in the past eight months to break North Platte’s monthly record in figures dating to 2006.
 
“The best thing about it is it’s becoming consistent,” said Gary Person, president and CEO of the North Platte Area Chamber & Development Corp.
“If there’s a silver lining to COVID, it’s that people reinvented their hometown shopping. People came to understand the value of what they have here. Sometimes it’s good to look at what you do have here as opposed to what you don’t have.”
 
The continued brisk pace of sales-tax collections — which Person said also now regularly reflects online purchases by local residents — guarantees another annual cash infusion for QGF at the end of 2021. Continue reading here.