BENTONVILLE -- The upward trend in sales tax receipts pleases Benton and Washington county officials, they said Friday.
Both counties reported increases in monthly sales tax receipts for June, which reflect taxes collected in April.
County taxes
Both Benton and Washington counties have a 1 percent sales tax to help fund county government. The money is collected by merchants and sent to the state Department of Finance and Administration, which then distributes the revenue to the counties and the cities in each county. The cities and county governments divide the revenue from the tax according to their share of the county’s population.
Source: Staff report
Benton County showed revenue of $633,299 in June from a one-percent sales. That's $81,418 more than the same month in 2014, a 13.99 percent. For the year-to-date, Benton County is $335,825 ahead of 2014, a 9.54 percent increase.
Washington County showed revenue of $538,818 in June from a one-percent sales tax. That's $41,400 more than the same month in 2014, a 7.68 percent increase. For the year, Washington County is $196,125 ahead of 2014, a 6.12 percent increase.
Lindsey Young, chief deputy treasurer for Washington County, said the 2015 budget target for the county is about $6.3 million, up by about 1.3 percent from the $6.2 million collected in 2014.
"We budgeted for about a $200,000 increase," Young said. "We're hoping to get there. It's still looking good."
Brenda Guenther, Benton County comptroller, said sales tax collections are also ahead of schedule in her county.
Tom Allen, chairman of Benton County's Finance Committee, said he's comfortable with the direction of sales tax collection in recent months. The county had several months last year where collection dropped below the same month the previous year.
"I think the reports indicate a very healthy trend upwards," Allen said. "I think, at this point, the wise and prudent thing for the rest of the year is to anticipate the same kind of growth."
Allen will argue for the county to keep the additional revenue in reserve for planned building projects, other large capital expenses and other unexpected expenses.
"We need to put money aside to pay for the possible courthouse expansion or relocation," he said. "We've also got to look at increasing expenses for War Eagle Bridge. There's probably going to be a pretty good bill from the jail where they're replacing that cooling unit. That won't be cheap, and it wasn't in the budget. There are plenty of things we can put that toward."
Barry Moehring of District 15 said Benton County needs to stick to its budget as much as possible rather than spending additional revenue as it comes n.
"We've definitely got a nice track record going. It shows the strength of our local economy," he said.
Moehring wants the county to have full information on annual revenue before deciding to spend any of the money from the month-to-month growth.
"That's to be determined," he said of the county's final revenue. "Both the property tax and the sales tax are up. There are always going to be things that come up."
NW News on 06/27/2015