It's a trend that Jefferson City officials hope doesn't gain much traction.
At the monthly meeting of the city's finance committee Friday, Finance Director Steve Schlueter reported that the general sales tax numbers for the city are significantly down from projected figures.
"When I first got the numbers, I knew that could not possibly be right, based on my optimism," Schlueter said.
When the committee met in February, the general sales tax account was a little more than $3 million, $30,000 short of projections, which Schlueter said at Friday's meeting was a good sign.
However, the city received a March sales tax check for just less than $590,000, which was more than $575,000 below the budgeted projection. That increased the deficit to more than $600,000.
Schlueter said he contacted the Missouri Department of Revenue to see if something drastic had happened. According to the information he received, the drop was, in part, because of slowdowns in the department.
"Talking to the representatives from the Department of Revenue, there are two things that caused them to be delayed in the posting of revenue from the monthly and the quarterly tax filings," Schlueter said. "There were several holidays in February with all of the presidents and then, also, the snow."
Schlueter said he has been told by Revenue staff that the difference in what the city received in March and what it should have received may be made up in the April sales tax check.