BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials were concerned Monday about a decline in sales tax revenue, saying they need to be mindful of the up-and-down nature of the county's revenue so far this year.
Benton County's sales tax receipts for June, which reflect taxes collected in April, showed a total of $581,882 this year, compared with $648,543 in the same month in 2013, said Mike Crandall, county accounting manager. The county's total for the year is now $7,995 below the budgeted projection that would have the county take in $7.3 million, Crandall said.
AT A GLANCE
Sales Tax
Benton County’s 2014 budget projected the county’s sales tax revenue at $7.3 million, just barely over the $7,295,870 the county collected in 2013. Through the first six months of 2014 the county’s sales tax receipts are $7,995 less than in the same period last year. The county saw sales tax revenue grow by 7.4 percent in 2012 and by 8.4 percent in 2013.
Source: Benton County
"It seems like I read in the newspaper that the cities were kind of a mixed bag as well," said Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the county's Finance Committee.
Allen noted that the county had recovered after poor sales tax revenue reports in February and March, but is now showing another drop after two months of increases over budget.
"I guess I'll go back to being concerned, trying to figure out if that's an indication of how the rest of the summer is going to go," Allen said.
Crandall said he had looked at the state's report on sales tax revenue broken down by category, but he saw no real explanation. He noted that April was the deadline for filing federal income tax returns.
"That's the only thing I can really think of," he said.
Washington County Treasurer Roger Haney said tax receipts for Washington County in June were $497,417, which is up over the same month in 2013.
"We were up very little, about 1.2 percent," Haney said.
Washington County's share of the sales tax has changed after some recent annexations, but the county's receipts are still 3.5 percent ahead of last year, Haney said. For the year, Haney said, Washington County has had two months, February and March, that showed decreases compared with the same months last year. In 2013, he said, Washington County collected $6,071,284 in sales tax revenue and budgeted for about 2 percent in growth this year with a budget target of $6,182,573.
"Right now, we're at about 3.5 percent, so we're a little ahead," Haney said.
Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13 in Benton County, said he also will watch for any trend in Benton County's revenue reports. He said area cities also have seen fluctuations in their revenue reports.
"I'm not going to get too concerned about it at this point in time," Moore said. "If next month comes in in a similar fashion we'll have to watch things more closely."
Moore said he doesn't expect the county to see any growth in sales tax revenue this year, which could complicate the budget process for 2015. Typically, he said, the county has used excess sales tax revenue to cover bills incurred at the end of one year and paid early in the next year.
"I'm thinking we're lucky if we just hit our projection for the year," Moore said.
NW News on 07/01/2014