According to the latest figures, Draper's sales-tax revenues are 20 percent ahead of this year's budgeted $6.5 million. That news persuaded the City Council this week to boost Draper's projected revenues by a conservative 12 percent.

So what does it mean for Draper? The city should have another $1 million to pay salaries, patch streets and protect the public - all thanks to the booming business community.

"The sales-tax revenue in Draper has doubled in the last three years alone, in large part due to the economic growth," said city spokeswoman Maridene Hancock.

Expect those figures to only rise with last year's addition of Swedish furniture juggernaut IKEA. The recent boost has come largely without its furniture sales figuring into the equation.

For the upward trend over the past three years, Draper's Community Development Director David Dobbins credits the likes of the bustling Draper Peaks business development just off Interstate 15 and 12300 South, along with an influx of new stores and restaurants and a strong core of existing businesses.

"We just started accounting for IKEA's numbers in the last six months," Dobbins said. "So a significant portion of the doubling [over the past three years] actually came from [those] other developments."

The city can't release details on the sales-tax revenue IKEA has generated, but Dobbins says it's certainly a welcome addition and expects it to "contribute significantly in new amounts of sales tax."

Hancock added that the assembly-required, frugal-furniture giant has another impact: It's attracting further commercial growth. Karl Malone Toyota, for example, will relocate from Sandy to Draper this spring.

However, all this new cash from added businesses is bittersweet for the city's 37,000 residents, who were slapped with a hefty 70 percent property-tax hike last year, which is expected to feed the city another $2 million. Some argued that IKEA and other commercial growth should cover increasing city expenses rather than residents' picking up the tab.

sgehrke@sltrib.com

* Are running 20 percent above budget.

* Have doubled over the past three years.

* Are expected to reach $7.26 million during 2008.