East Baton Rouge sales tax revenues totaled $161.2 million in 2009, representing a drop of 5.96 percent from the previous year, according to the latest sales tax figures released today.

Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden said the Capital City is weathering the national recession much better than most other American cities that have had to resort to service cuts and layoffs to balance their budgets.

In spite of the loss of $10.2 million in sales-tax revenues in 2009, Holden noted the City-Parish budget remains balanced with no reduction in services, largely due to conservative spending.

“As we tracked the downturn in the national economy, we were conservative in our budget estimates and conservative in our spending to make sure that our city-parish budget remained sound,” Mayor Holden said.  “I have watched other cities in Louisiana and around the country cut police officers, reduce services and lay-off employees, and we are fortunate that our budgeting process took into account a potential decrease in local sales.”

Holden said he remains optimistic about the future for East Baton Rouge, especially in light of a December report by Forbes Magazine that listed Baton Rouge among the top 10 fastest recovering cities in America. The Forbes article cited East Baton Rouge’s relatively low unemployment and stable housing market in predicting its rapid recovery.

“We are still projecting a small job growth over the next year at a time when other areas are losing jobs and facing high unemployment,” Holden said, “and we will make sure our city and parish remain strong until our sales tax receipts fully rebound.”

The latest East Baton Rouge sales tax report shows that sales-tax collections in December totaled $14.9 million, a decrease of $2.7-million or 15.25 percent compared to December of 2008.