It’s the pain that won’t go away.

City Hall leaders once again are spending some time worrying about lagging sales tax numbers, acknowledging that more spending cuts may be needed in the fourth quarter to get the 2007 budget into shape.

“The national economic news is not particularly heartening,” City Manager David Corliss said.

The latest local numbers weren’t too good for the old ticker either. City Hall received its August sales tax check – which represents sales made largely in parts of June or July – and it was less than what the city received in August 2006. What’s more important, it was less than what the city had projected to receive.

The latest report also pushed the city into negative territory for the entire year. Through August, the city has received $13.46 million. Through the same time period a year ago, the city had received $13.47 million. The city had projected to receive $13.54 million through August of this year.

The current shortfall – about $82,000 at the moment – isn’t creating major concerns. What is worrisome, though, is if the trend continues through the rest of the year and leads to a shortfall of several hundred thousand dollars. Corliss said his staff would be keeping a close eye on future sales tax numbers.

City commissioners this summer already made one round of spending cuts in response to lagging sales tax numbers. Those cuts included reduced funding to social service agencies, limited job cuts, and several parks and recreation projects put on hold.

In total, the city cut about $3 million from the 2007 budget. Corliss said he couldn’t rule out another round of spending cuts before year’s end.

“We’re going to have to be very wise about our expenditures,” Corliss said.

A larger concern may be 2008. City commissioners built next year’s budget on the assumption of a 3.5 percent increase in sales tax revenues. Corliss, at the time the budget was being made, said that projection was in the outer limits of his comfort zone. The fact that sales tax numbers have not yet started to improve hasn’t increased his comfort level.

City Commissioner Rob Chestnut said he wants to stick with the 2008 projections, but he said sales tax numbers will have to be watched closely. Chestnut said he thought there was some reason to believe energy prices would moderate, and that consumers would increase spending, now that they’ve become a bit more accustomed to higher gasoline prices.

“The economy is very difficult to predict right now, but I have a tendency to believe that we’re not going to see a real shortfall in consumer spending next year,” he said.

The economy has caused the county government to be more conservative in its sales tax projections for 2008. The county is projecting sales tax revenues to grow at a rate of 1.75 percent.

Chestnut, though, said the city also is being conservative. He said the city will be holding off on making several expenditures in the first few months of 2008 to give city leaders time to review new sales tax numbers. He said if sales tax numbers continue to come in below projections, the city could again order spending cuts.

“But that’s not fun,” Chestnut said. “We don’t want to go through another round of mid-year adjustments.”