Sales tax receipts took slightly different trajectories this month for Benton and Washington counties, but Benton County officials said a slight dip in revenue isn't cause for concern.
Benton County's monthly sales tax revenue report for January showed the county received $614,714 in revenue. Revenue reported in January represent sales taxes collected by businesses in November. The taxes are then sent to Little Rock for distribution among the cities and county governments according to their share of the population.
Benton County's sales tax revenue was down by $7,319 from January 2015, representing a drop of 1.18 percent, according to Brenda Guenther, comptroller.
Tom Allen, justice of the peace and chairman of the county's Finance Committee, said the drop doesn't worry him.
"It's not anything to be overly concerned with," Allen said. "We've had months of decreases before. This month's report showed the November collections. Next month we get a report that would be for December collections. I would say if next month come in with a decline compared to the previous year I would be concerned."
Bobby Hill, Washington County treasurer, said his county's January report showed sales tax revenue of 550,868, an increase of $27,878 or about 5 percent over January 2015. Hill is glad to see the county continue the trend of growth in sales tax revenue it saw last year.
"We had a good year last year, and we're already up more than 5 percent," Hill said. "I'll keep on beating this dead horse. I'm a big believer that lower gas prices encourage people to go out and spend. I think as long as gas prices stay below $2 a gallon we'll continue to have good sales tax reports. It's a good start for 2016 from a good year last year."
Joel Jones, Benton County justice of the peace, said the slow start to 2016 doesn't concern him.
"Historically speaking, we typically start out the year with January down from where we ended in December," Jones said. "I don't think it's anything that's trouble at this point. We'll just keep on tracking it and see where it goes."
Barry Moehring, Benton County justice of the peace, echoed Jones, saying the small dip in revenue doesn't necessarily indicate trouble for the county's finances.
"It's close," Moehring said. "It's not the increasing trajectory we had over the year last year. But it's no big deal. I'm not alarmed or concerned either way. We're coming off a banner year, and we budgeted basically to comp that year. I'm not going to be concerned as long as we're coming close to that."
NW News on 01/28/2016