County sales tax growing Officials hoping recent receipt slump ending

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's sales tax receipts showed a slight increase in April, giving officials reason to hope a recent slump is ending.

"I'm not going to rest easy but I am very pleased," Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the Finance Committee, said Wednesday. "I expected another month in the negative because that was the February collections, and we did have some bad weather in February."

The April report represents sales tax collected in February.

The committee received the April sales tax report at a budget meeting Tuesday. Mike Crandall, accounting manager, told the justices of the peace the April report came in at $545,045. That's 2.07 percent above the April 2013 report when the county received $533,997.

"Our sales tax revenue for April is the highest we've had in this month since 2010," Crandall said. Benton County's sales tax revenue dropped after 2010 after the results of the most recent census. Sales tax revenue is divided between the county and its cities based on population.

Washington County's sales tax revenue was also up this month, according to the Washington County Treasurer's Office. Both Benton and Washington counties had seen their sales tax revenue drop through the first three months of the year. In Washington County, the April report showed the county received $506,373. The figure was $35,154 above the same month in 2013.

Bobby Hill, chief deputy treasurer, said the increase is welcome news.

"We were concerned likewise, and we were hoping the decrease was due to the weather," Hill said. "We were real happy to get that news after two straight months on the down side. We hope it continues." Barry Moehring, Benton county justice of the peace for District 15, said he anticipated the increase in sales tax revenue.

"I expected it to bounce back just by virtue of the weather turning better in February," Moehring said.

He added the county still has reason to be worried about its sales tax revenue for the year.

"One thing that concerns me is we're coming up against some very strong numbers from last year," he said. "If you take a look, they did spike last year beginning in May and for the next several months. It's going to be tough to match that spike, but I'm hopeful our trend will continue to increase."

Allen said the justices of the peace will need to watch the sales tax revenue closely each month. The county budgeted for $7.3 million in sales tax revenue for 2014 and may have trouble meeting that projection, he said.

"It'll be a remarkable recovery if we hit our budget," Allen said. "But, if we're out of the woods, we may come close enough that it's not a major concern."

General News on 04/30/2014