If you’ve been following budget discussions in Ukiah, Willts and Mendocino County you know that declining sales tax is a big problem. In the last five years, Ukiah’s sales tax has not grown a penny. Indeed, after taking into account the roller coaster of the pandemic, the stimulus, followed by the post stimulus slump, Ukiah’s total sales tax has shrunk by 1%. In Willits, sales taxes have shrunk by17% in the last five years. Mendocino County is in better shape, while taxes are down 5% from the pandemic high in 2021, they are up 18 percent in the last five years. However, these numbers don’t take into account a very important missing factor — only a portion of the e-commerce tax that is collected from companies like Amazon is remitted back to the county or local jurisdictions.
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