TheKyleReportThe Kyle Report is an opinion column written by Kyle resident, Pete Oppel, that covers city leadership issues. You can follow The Kyle Report here on the Kyle Life or by subscribing to Mr. Oppel’s blog, The Kyle TX Report.

The city is slowly pulling itself out of the budget gap caused by far lower than anticipated sales tax receipts for the first three months of the fiscal year with the second consecutive month of higher than projected sales tax numbers.

Although it still doesn’t completely compensate for the disastrous December figures, when sales tax receipts were $43,000 below the projected numbers, February’s report was positive, $14,478.73 or 2.04 percent above forecasts. That reduces the deficit for the fiscal year to $33,542.28, with seven months left in the accounting period to erase that deficit. It should be noted, however, that last year sales tax receipts fell below projections for those final seven months of the fiscal year.

Kyle’s total sales tax receipts for February reporting period were $722,526.73, compared to $597,254.09 for the same period last year.

“This small rebound is good,” Mayor Todd Webster said, “but it is still something we have to keep our eyes on. What is really remarkable is how much higher our receipts are now over the same months last year. It really attests to how soundly Kyle’s economy is growing. So, personally, I’m feeling pretty good about these numbers.”