Economically speaking, it’s been a good year for Troy.

December’s numbers aren’t even in, yet, and the city is already $120,000 dollars ahead of last year’s sales tax revenue collection.

“That is a pretty substantial increase,” said City Clerk Alton Starling. “And we are $108,000 ahead of what we budgeted for the year.”

This isn’t the first year Troy’s sales tax revenue numbers have been up. Starling explained there has been a steady increase for the last few years.

In 2008, the city collected $4,981,000. In 2009, the number rose to $5,057,000. There was another increase in 2010 to $5,253,000 and again in 2011 to $5,442,000.

So far this year, Troy has collected $5,562,000.

“That is a fairly good representation of what people are spending,” Starling said. “But it is hard to pinpoint one particular reason the numbers are going up.”

The increase in sales tax revenue could be attributed to the number of people brought to the area by Troy University, or the increased amount of traffic coming through Troy as people headed back to the beach this year.

The increase is not due to car sales, though, Starling said, noting that car sales are down while other local businesses seem to be doing well.

Numbers for December sales won’t be in until sometime in January, but Starling said December is traditionally produces the most revenue due to holiday shopping.