County Sales Tax Surpasses $2 Million

Crawford County’s general revenue sales tax has surpassed $2 million in 2019.

Treasurer Karen Sikes released the November collection, which totaled $217,731.79.

The collection was up 28 percent compared to November 2018.

It’s the second-highest monthly total recorded this year.

The county ends the year with a total of $2,175,319.91.

County Clerk John Martin said December 19 that revenue fell $83,000 short of where it was budgeted.

Despite that, the county ends 2019 in its best financial shape in more than a decade.

The sales tax increase that was approved by voters in April 2018 has produced record revenues in its first year.

The county general revenue has failed to crack $100,000 in just one month, which happened during the first month it went into effect — October 2018.

Since then, the monthly totals have topped $200,000 on four occasions (February, August, September and November).

Collection in August soared to $314,524. That typically represented about one-third of the yearly revenue before the sales tax increase was imposed.

LEO/CI

The law enforcement sales tax and capital improvement sales tax each saw modest 5 percent gains compared to November 2018.

The November collection was $104,657, up from $99,394.25 last year.

Each of the sales taxes have been on a roller coaster in 2019.

As of December, the yearly collection for both stands at $1,043,499.02.

Last year it totaled $1,079,326.47. December, typically a strong month for sales tax collection, should put it over the 2018 totals.