The city of Steamboat Springs has released its final July 2025 sales, use, accommodation and short-term rental tax report, showing that the levies brought in a total of $192,533, or, 5.58% more than collected in July of last year.

Still, the city is slightly behind its tax collection budget projections this year.

The city budgeted a 3% increase in sales tax for 2025, and collections are currently trailing behind budget expectations by about 1.87%, or about $175,000. Sales tax collections are 2.83% higher than year-to-date collections through the same period last year, with July seeing an 11.02% increase in construction, 7.17% for restaurants and 9.30% for utilities.

“We budgeted it expecting to be 3% up and we aren’t quite hitting that mark — but we’re close,” said Kim Weber, finance director for the City of Steamboat Springs. “When I look at the numbers for July, it looks to me, based on the sales tax numbers that our sales were fairly similar to July of 2024. Probably most of the increase that we had was due to inflation with the exception of two areas: Construction, which makes up a big chunk, about 30% of the increase, as well as miscellaneous retail.”

Weber explained that the miscellaneous retail category encompasses items that are ordered from retailers outside city limits — such as Amazon or Wayfair — still contribute to the city’s sales tax revenue.

“Anything that gets delivered, we are collecting sales tax on, and so when I compare the miscellaneous retail being a little bit higher, and then also the out of town sales, that tells me it’s a lot of the deliveries,” Weber said. “I don’t have the visitation numbers; but based on sales tax, it was fairly stable, or maybe a little bit down.”

Weber said she feels comfortable that the city will come close to meeting its budget projections. She also said adjustments can be made to reduce expenditures enough for the city to have a balance in 2025.

“I anticipate we will come close to meeting our budget,” Weber said. “December is such a large month for sales tax. That really will have an impact on whether we make that 3%, or not. So we are planning our budget accordingly, and ready to make adjustments if necessary.”

The Accommodation Tax collections were 3.28% higher in July compared to the same period last year — an increase of $4,349.

The Accommodation Tax serves many purposes:

• Maintenance of improvements and amenities that enhance the community identity, environmental sustainability, and economic health of Steamboat Springs
• Acquisition of real property for parks, recreation, and open space purposes
• Preservation of the city’s natural resources

The city also saw a $42,627 dollar increase in the July’s STR tax collections compared to the same month last year.

The tax is dedicated for use to increase the stock of affordable and attainable housing and to provide funding for infrastructure associated with affordable and attainable housing, including without limitation, energy, stormwater, water, wastewater and multi-modal transportation.

Collections were 5.30% higher compared to July 2024, and year-to-date STR tax collection is 2.33% compared to 2024.