With the usual quarterly delay, the state reimbursed the City of Santa Barbara in December for its summertime tax receipts, which totaled $5.5 million, up 6.9 percent over the same quarter the previous year. The next tax result will be available to the city in March.
The upward trend continued in transient occupancy taxes (TOT) collected from the city’s hospitality industry this past November and December.
Since the beginning of the fiscal year in July 2014, the monthly increase for the hotel bed tax has ranged between a low of 5.6 percent to a whopping 26 percent in October. November (16.9 percent up over the previous November) and December (up 11.1 percent over December 2013) added a total of $2,245,977 to the city’s ledger. A city press release cited good weather and the reopening of several hotels undergoing renovation for the healthy growth in TOT.