City officials remind citizens to shop local ahead of premier shopping months

City of Tuttle officials met Monday, July 24 for a workshop meeting, allowing the council, department heads, and others to discuss upcoming and ongoing city business topics.
One of those topics was the city’s sales tax history report, which showed how the municipality is doing as far as sales taxes collected.
In 2022, the City of Tuttle collected the most sales tax it ever had with a total of $718,246. At this point in 2022, the City of Tuttle had collected $396,222. So far this year, the City of Tuttle has collected $402,347.
With back-to-school and Christmas shopping seasons coming up, city officials talked about the importance of shopping local. Municipalities run largely on sales tax and little else.
For those who want to purchase something that is not available within Tuttle city limits, there is an alternative.
Thanks to an agreement with Amazon in 2017, the online retail giant began paying sales tax to Oklahoma municipalities. There is a catch, however. The sales tax will go to the municipality where a package is sent.
Tuttle’s Mayor Aaron McLeroy explained, saying, “It’s called point-of-sale, and point-of-sale is where it is delivered. When you go into the store and you purchase something, your point-of-sale is at the store. When you order something online from Walmart or Amazon or wherever online, and you have it shipped to your house, the point-of-sale is your house. The point-of-sale is where the sales tax is collected and remitted. When you have something ordered online from Walmart, Bass Pro, Amazon and it’s delivered to your house, then the City of Tuttle receives the sales tax for that. When you go to Walmart in Newcastle or Mustang and you buy something, then Newcastle or Mustang receives that sales tax. Sales tax is what municipalities use to fund their cities. That’s how we pay for our police department, fire fepartment, how we get gas, water, sewer to your house. That money is critical to the city to make sure that your potholes stay filled, and all the different things that a city does to take care of its citizens. It’s all funded through sales tax, and when you go shop in Newcastle or Mustang or Oklahoma City, you’re helping fix the streets in Mustang, Newcastle or Oklahoma City.
“If they have packages delivered to their office, if they work in Oklahoma City or if they work somewhere other than in Tuttle, where those packages are delivered, that municipality is receiving the sales tax from that. A lot of those people do have things sent to their offices, especially during the holidays, because of porch pirates. They don’t want their packages stolen.”