When it comes to sales tax collections, the summer of 2024 looked very similar to the summer 2023 for Summit County’s municipalities. Many of the town’s financial departments describe the growth year over year to be “flat,” with some minor deviations in revenues. Summit County government’s sales collection took the largest dip by far.

Silverthorne, Frisco and Breckenridge had slight increases in revenues while Dillion saw a minuscule decrease.  

Due in part to Keystone becoming a town in February 2024, Summit County’s summer sales tax collections look very different when comparing 2023 to 2024.

On Summit County’s website, it states the incorporation of Keystone led to an approximate one-third reduction in sales tax values. After incorporating in February, the town began receiving a 2% county-wide sales tax for purchases made within the town.  

Summit County collected $619,137 in sales tax in June 2023 and $463,928 in June 2024. July saw the largest dip in collections year over year, with the county collecting $817,058 in 2023 and $548,044 in 2024. The county also saw a fairly significant dip in August, collecting $730,018 in 2023 and $512,154 in 2024.

Breckenridge’s sales tax collections for the summer of 2024 for the most part mirror summer 2023’s with a slight bump in August. 

Comparing June 2023 and 2024, the town saw little to no changes, having $54,770,493 in net taxable sales in 2023 and $55,138,508 in 2024. In recent history, July has had higher collections than other summer months. In July 2023 the town saw $75,058,760 in net taxable sales and that jumped up around 1% in 2024 to $76,081,134 in net taxable sales. August had over a 6% increase year over year with the town seeing $63,641,424 in net taxable sales in 2023 and $67,735,082 in net taxable sales for 2024.

Breckenridge’s revenue manager Pam Ness presented summer financials to Breckenridge Town Council at an Oct. 22 meeting and said a boost in sales at retail stores, restaurants and bars helped contribute to August being a “profitable” month for the town. Retail revenues saw a 13% increase year over year for August and restaurant and bar sales saw a near 10.5% increase year over year. 

In terms of taxable sales for lodging, Breckenridge was fairly flat year over year, Ness said. The town saw a 3% increase in taxable lodging sales in June year over year, a near 7% decrease in July and a near .4% increase for August. 

Frisco’s finance director Leslie Edwards said the town had a “strong summer overall” in sales tax with collections up 4.3% for the summer months year over year.

Where Breckenridge had the most growth in August, Frisco had the most growth in July. Frisco’s sales tax collections jumped 6.7%, with the town collecting $630,439 in 2023 and $672,387 in 2024. The town saw a 4% increase year over year for June, collecting $527,341 in 2023 and $548,583 in 2024. August had the most minimal increase with the town collecting $594,837 in 2023 and $611,105 in 2024. 

Edwards said the construction supplies and hotels sectors “were particularly robust.” 

Frisco had a 38.4% increase in sales tax collections from hotels and inns from 2023 to 2024 for June, a 32.2% increase in July and a 30.9% increase in August. Frisco’s 2024 monthly construction sales tax collections have been up anywhere from 19% to 24% year over year with the exception of January, which only saw a 8% increase.

“Staff is cautiously optimistic about the summer trend continuing into the winter season and on into 2025,” Edwards said via email. “We have budgeted a 2.5% increase for 2025 sales tax revenue over what we are projecting for 2024.”

Silverthorne’ finance director Laura Kennedy said the town 2024 tax collections are just about equal to 2023 at large. She said there was an increase in collections for June and July and a slight decrease in collections in August compared to 2023. 

In June 2023, Silverthorne collected $1,577,659 in sales tax and collected $1,617,491 in 2024. July brought an 8% bump in sales tax collections year over year, with Silverthorne collecting $1,427,421 in 2023 and $1,542,848 in 2024. August had a near 1.6% drop year over year, with the town collecting $1,521,058 in 2023 and $1,496,910 in 2024. 

According to Dillon’s finance director Mary Kay Perrotti, the town’s sales tax collections for June-August year over year were fairly flat and it collected $2.7 in 2023 and $2.5 in 2024.