WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. By John F. Bailey. July 13, 2007 UPDATED 5:16 PM EDT: City Chief Financial Officer, Gina Cuneo-Harwood, reported exclusively to WPCNR this morning that the city set a record for sales tax collections in the 2006-2007 fiscal year.

Harwood said the city collected $44,853,308 in sales tax, about $1.9 Million more than the projection of $43 Million. The city collected $10,729,188 in the final quarter of April, May and June to set the record.

Ms Harwood said the $1.9 Million would be used to offset the expected use of $7.6 Million in fund balance anticipated to be used in this fiscal year, 2007-2008.

At of the end of the third quarter, the city had collected $34 Million in sales taxes for 2006-2007.  The First Quarter clocked in at $10 Million; second quarter, 11.9 Million, and for the third, $12.1 Million, totalling $34 Million and change.  The city's April-May-June "handle" of $10,729,188 Million closes the 2006-2007 "books": at $44.8 Million plus

The best White Plains has ever done in a quarter was last December with $11.9 Million in the till, meaning the city may be turning the corner in their budget struggle. The final quarter finish is approximately $ 1.4 Million ahead of last year's (2005-2006)  final quarter pace ($9.4 Million) a 15% increase in final stanza sales tax performance.

Increase Year to Year is 1.2% Ahead of New York Area inflation.

The total sales tax collection of $44.8 represents a 5.4% increase in the sales tax over the collection of $42.5 Million in 2005-2006 which did not have the benefit of Wal-Mart in the retail mix.

The State of New York calculates that the year to year inflation increase as of March 2007 from March 2006 was 3.8%, meaning that 3.8% of the 5% sales tax gain was inflation. The figure of 3.8% was what the city school budget was given by the state three months ago to compute their school contingency budget. The national year to year flation increase from May 2006 to May 2007 was 2.49%.