STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — City officials in Steamboat Springs were happy to learn this week the city collected more tax revenue in December than it did at the same time in 2016 despite a lack of snowfall for much of the month.

"With December being our largest sales tax collection month, I was happy to see it was a positive number of 1 percent increase despite our challenges with weather," Finance Director Kim Weber said. "I was also happy to see we ended the year at 3.5 percent above 2016."

Steamboat collected $3.1 million in tax revenue in December, according to the preliminary sales tax report.

It will end the year with an estimated 3.56 percent, or $834,068, increase in sales tax revenue over 2016. The annual increase in tax revenue matched what Weber's July prediction of where sales tax revenue would fall.

And the higher revenue total means the city will have brought in more revenue than it budgeted to spend.

Lodging revenue in December was down slightly over last year, but Weber said tax collections now being handled by Airbnb helped keep the tax losses in the lodging sector to a minimum.

Weber attributed part of an increase in regional sales tax collections around the city to the presence of Airbnb and their relatively new agreement to start collecting and remitting city taxes for the hosts.

Restaurants in Steamboat posted the biggest gains in terms of total dollars sent to the city's tax coffers. The city's restaurants brought in $413,186 in sales tax revenue, a nearly 7 percent increase over 2016.

The city's marijuana industry also continued to grow late last year. Dispensaries saw their sales increase by almost 16 percent in December 2017 compared to 2016.

Miscellaneous retail sales were flat compared to last year, while sporting good sales continued to decline over the previous year.

To reach Scott Franz, call 970-871-4210, email scottfranz@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @ScottFranz10.