Despite shaky economic reports at the national level, the city of Bonney Lake continues to fare pretty well through the first part of 2011.

According to new reports put together by the city finance department, Bonney Lake saw larger than expected sales tax collection for March and April, marking the two biggest hauls for the months in the past five years.

Though retail sales tax figures have remained consistent from year-to-year, the additional revenue this year was generated through sales tax collected off of construction.

In total, Bonney Lake collected $262,686 in March and $271,514 in April.

Finance Director Al Jaurez said the city is “right on track” this year to meet all of its budget estimates.

Though the city does not budget revenue collection by month, Juarez said that through April, the latest month for which figures are available, the city has collected approximately 30 percent of predicted revenue over the forst 33 percent of the year.

Though that would seem a little behind, Juarez said sales tax picks up at the end of the year, meaning the city might actually be a little ahead at this point.

“We still have eight months to pick up that percent lag,” he said.

Juarez said the increase in construction-related sales tax collections tells him that the city might be coming out of the worst of the recession.

“People are out buying more and more in relation to construction,” he said, noting that while the numbers have not yet returned to where they were in 2008, they are well above what came in during the first four months of 2009, which represented a low for Bonney Lake.

“It’s a big issue for us,” Juarez said.

Councilmembers were split over the importance of the report during the July 5 council workshop.

Councilmember Jim Rackley expressed confidence in the economy after seeing the two months of good numbers while Deputy Mayor Dan Swatman warned not to read to much in because the largest increase came in construction spending, which he said is a one-time increase, while many of the city’s large retailers continue to struggle.

Juarez, however, said the numbers give him some confidence for the remainder of the year.

“I think that 2011 is going to outpace 2010,” he said.