City sales tax shows slight upward trend in November
Dec. 17, 2025
Sales tax revenue in Sioux Falls continued its slightly upward trend in November.
Revenue received in November increased 2.7 percent on a year-over-year basis, which applies to actual sales that happened largely in October.
Sales tax is up 2.6 percent for the year.
The numbers present “a slightly more positive message,” director of finance Shawn Pritchett said Tuesday in a report to the City Council.
“We are really hoping to get 2.5 percent by year-end, and we seem to be trending in a good direction.”
The budget had called for 3 percent growth. The city finished 2024 up 1.5 percent.
“We had fairly low growth in December of last year, so hopefully that will mean it’s a little bit easier for us to grow off that number for December 2025.”
By sector, “you see manufacturing, wholesale trade, lumber continuing to be negative over the last 12 to 18 months,” Pritchett said. “The positive side has been business services, which continues to see an upward trend.”
Overall sales tax has been flat “when it comes to consumer items, whether it’s grocery stores or department stores,” Pritchett said.
Miscellaneous retail “has really been in negative territory,” and while home furnishings have been negative, the category is “starting to trend a little upwards,” he said.
Remote retail “has been our strongest sector and continues to perform very well,” Pritchett said.
The entertainment tax continued to trend negative in part because of a one-time correction a year ago. It likely will stay negative through January, “but we should hopefully see a sharp uptick in February.”
Restaurant sales “were up” for the month, and if not for the correction, “I think we would have been positive,” he said of the overall entertainment tax revenue.
Lodging tax “has been up and down” throughout the year, and it’s difficult to tell one month to the next what has driven the revenue changes, he said.
The city is on track to manage with its existing snow removal budget and is planning on at least one more snow alert this year, he added.
