Kathy Colson went shopping Monday afternoon in downtown Lawrence, a small sack in hand.

The slumping economy hasn’t slowed her shopping.

“I think it’s about as usual,” Colson said.

But Colson is an exception to the rule these days. New figures show city sales tax collections are down 3 percent from the first quarter a year ago.

March sales were down $23,000 from a year ago — the third-straight month of declining sales tax collections.

“It’s not a good start to the year,” City Finance Director Ed Mullins said Monday. “The retail environment is certainly not a good one right now.”

In the first quarter of 2003, the city collected $4.54 million in sales taxes. That’s down from $4.68 million during the same period in 2002.

So far, Mullins said, the city could still make its $17.87 million in projected sales tax revenues for the year.

“It’s awful early to tell,” he said.

But a continued slide will force Lawrence city commissioners to take a renewed hard look at city spending during the current budget year.

City Manager Mike Wildgen has already imposed a hiring “chill” in City Hall, and Lawrence took a $1.38 million hit when the state cut aid to cities in an effort to solve its own budget crisis.

¢ 6News video: Sales tax receipts down

“I think everything is going to be subject to review,” Mayor Sue Hack said. “It’s either figure out how to cut costs or figure out how to increase revenue.

“It’s not going to be a pleasant budget experience. There are no easy answers.”

Bob Schumm, who owns several downtown restaurants, said the economy in Lawrence now was “just fair.”

“The merchants I’ve talked to have said there’s less willingness to spend money on retail goods,” he said. “There’s lots of stuff we can do without.”

The trend was apparent during the recent spring break, Schumm said. People were forgoing vacations.

“This is the first spring break I can remember when we didn’t have a shortage of staff,” he said. “The battle cry was that people were staying in town to earn money rather than go spend it on vacation.”

Hack offered a half-joking hope that Kansas University’s basketball success in the Final Four could revive the sales tax collections.

“Just think about all the people downtown, all the people having parties, all the people buying T-shirts,” she said.

Mullins wasn’t hopeful for a quick fix.

“I think we’ve got another year, at least, before the economy revives,” he said.

“And the war is complicating things.”