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Watertown collected more state sales tax dollars in January than any other South Dakota city, with the exception of Sioux Falls and Rapid City.
It wasn’t that Watertown businesses had a particularly good month; the $2,137,824.22 collected was actually a bit below the previous January. But Watertown was able to beat out similarly sized cities of Aberdeen and Brookings because both of those communities saw big drops in sales tax revenue.
Brookings collected $1,877,726 in sales taxes last month, which was more than 11 percent less than January 2024. Aberdeen fared even worse with a 15 percent drop from last year’s $2,206,441.67.
Yankton joined Watertown, Brookings and Aberdeen as the only cities among South Dakota’s 10 most-populated to see a decline in receipts from January 2024. Rapid City saw the biggest increase at just over 7 percent.
State sales tax receipts are the main source of revenue for South Dakota communities.
Other communities in Codington County all saw increases in sales tax collected. Florence collected $8,003.55 in January 2025, 15% more than the $6,955.20 in January 2024. Henry totaled $9,659.14 compared with $8,591.79 last year, an increase of more than12%.
Kranzburg and South Shore both saw major upticks in sales tax receipts. Kranzburg collected $9,459.45, a 32% jump from last January’s total of $7,182.11 South Shore saw a 33 percent increase, going to $2,221.77 last month from $1,664.98 a year ago.
