More city budget cuts may be on the way after commissioners received news that 2007 sales tax numbers were essentially flat.

A new city report showed that sales tax collections in 2007 grew by 0.9 percent in Lawrence. That was about $1 million less than commissioners had budgeted for, but more importantly, the numbers created concern that 2008 collections also will be disappointing.

“I saw the numbers and found them disturbing,” City Commissioner Mike Dever said.

For the city to meet its projections in 2008, sales tax collections will have to increase by 3.1 percent over their 2007 levels. That may be expecting too much because Lawrence sales tax growth since 2001 has averaged 2.3 percent a year. The last time sales tax collections grew more than 3 percent was in 2005.

“I think we’re going to have to reduce our expenditures somewhere,” Dever said. “I think we’ll have to start discussing it in the next few weeks.”

Commissioners last year also had to make midyear adjustments to spending after it became obvious that 2007 sales tax collections would not meet projections. During that round of budget cutting, commissioners imposed across-the-board decreases in funding for social service agencies and other outside groups that receive city funding. They also cut internally.

Both Dever and City Commissioner Mike Amyx stopped short of saying that they would target outside agencies this year, but also did not rule it out.

City Manager David Corliss agreed with commissioners that revenues likely won’t meet projections in 2008. Corliss said his staff’s projections are falling short mainly because the national economy has not improved as much as was expected when the projections were made last summer.

Commissioners, however, at the time were questioned about whether the projections were too optimistic. County commissioners, for example, built their 2008 budget on a more conservative projection of 1.5 percent growth in sales tax collections.