One early indicator shows the 2015 Sturgis Rally topped all previous records by a large margin.
The sales tax revenue generated from temporary vendor booths for this year’s rally is 76 percent higher than last year.
Temporary vendors who came in for the rally brought in about $2.4-million in sales taxes.
Lori Haupt is with the South Dakota Department of Revenue.
She tracks Sturgis Rally tax receipts year by year and she says 2015 blew past all previous records.
“We knew on Wednesday, which was our first payment day that we were already up a significant amount over the previous years. So, we were expecting the end of the week total to be pretty big and that turned out to be true,” says Haupt.
Haupt says these early sales tax revenues do not include the taxes raised at full time businesses like hotels and restaurants. Those business are due to report their taxes later this month. Haupt expects those numbers to be up as well.