Fiduciary fanatics can celebrate: Arcata’s sales tax numbers from last year are IN — and higher than ever before. What fun factoids are buried in the documents shared at last night’s Transactions and Use Tax Oversight Committee meeting?

The big one: Arcata made almost $3 million in sales tax fees during the fiscal year 2024-2025 which ended June 30 ($2,979,490 if you’d like to quibble), about 13% of all General Fund revenue. It’s an increase of over $100,000 more than the year before that, boosted at least a tad by the 0.75% increase to the tax that voters approved last year that went into effect on April 1, and a massive $700,000 more than the 2018-19 fiscal year. 

The years following a pandemic bump in spending were more profitable to the city than the ones before, though the earnings from this last fiscal year have soared above even the pandemic-era high.

Over $500,000 of that revenue was construction-related, at least partially related to the work done on Cal Poly Humboldt’s dorm and engineering buildings which have to ship in large amounts of material and pay a tax on it. During the last fiscal year, Arcata only made $466,000 on building and construction sales taxes. 

A memorandum composed by the committee estimates that Arcata will make about $2.7 million on the sales tax the next fiscal year, and the next few years will see “minimal to moderate growth” of between 0.3-3.1%. 

OK, but where’s it all getting spent? For 25-26, Arcata is budgeting $1.75 million for road improvement and $972,000 for the police out of the 2008 Measure G’s 0.75% tax, split 64-36. Last year’s ratio was closer to 71% of Measure G funding for street maintenance and 29% for the police. Some past police funding went to $50,000 bonuses for new officers, a program which allowed the police department to reach full staffing levels.