June produces all-time local sales tax record
August 19, 2025 | North Platte Telegraph
Tourists and shoppers in North Platte for June's "festival month" produced an all-time local sales tax record for the month and nearly did likewise with Lincoln County's lodging tax.
The city netted $1.493 million from its combined 2% sales tax, 4.3% better than 2024's June record of $1.432 million and second only to the $1.522 million collected in December.
Meanwhile, the county's hotel-motel tax flirted with its first $200,000 month for the second straight June.  Net proceeds totaled $198,579, just 0.3% shy of 2024's all-time record of $199,268 for any month since 2006.
The Nebraska Department of Revenue, which released net June sales and lodging tax figures last week, reports them about six weeks after each month closes. The department retains a 3% processing fee for collecting them for cities and counties.
Besides December's annual Christmas shopping, North Platte leaders look to June to boost retail sales and tourism through Nebraskaland Days and the Miss Nebraska and Miss Rodeo Nebraska competitions. June's record-setting totals pushed North Platte's net 2024-25 sales tax income to just over $14.6 million with one month left in the city's fiscal year.
But July's net sales taxes, which should be released in mid-September, would have to total nearly $1.599 million for the city to break last year's fiscal-year record of $16.2 million.
North Platte's 2024-25 total sales taxes already have qualified the city's Quality Growth Fund for economic development to receive a full $650,000 allocation for the fifth straight year.