BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials said Tuesday that the budget surplus after the first six months of 2018 stands at about $442,000.
Brenda Guenther, comptroller, said the county began 2018 with a surplus of about $518,000. Spending in the first six months has decreased it to $442,690, she said. Guenther said the county has spent about $4.5 million more in the first six months of 2018 than in the first six months of 2017. Most of that, about $2.5 million, was for new voting equipment, Guenther said
The Finance Committee heard reports Tuesday on the budget, sales tax collection, jail collection and other details of revenues and expenses.
Guenther said sales tax revenue for the first six months of 2018 is about $5.2 million. The county set aside about $895,000 in sales tax revenue so far in 2018 after large increases were noted in some categories. Those increases may be the subject of requests for rebates from the businesses paying the taxes.
Guenther said the county received about $8.1 million in sales tax revenue in 2017 and budgeted for $8.9 million, a 9.8 percent increase.
"Anything over that is what I call gravy," Guenther said. "So there's nearly $1 million in gravy."
Pat Adams, justice of the peace for District 6, asked about sales taxes on Internet sales in the wake of a recent Supreme Court decision upholding sales taxes on Internet sales in another state.
Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, said Arkansas will not see much revenue from Internet sales until next year.
"The Legislature is going to have to weigh in on that next year to create a law allowing them to collect taxes on Internet sales," Moore said. "Basically it's going to be about a year from now before we see it."
Jeremy Guyll with the Sheriff's Office briefed the committee on jail medical costs. Guyll said the county changed providers because of cost increases from the previous contract holder. The new contract is about $200,000 less than what had been proposed.
NW News on 07/11/2018