Sales tax numbers are in for August, reflecting purchasing in June, and county and city officials say they are even higher than the previous month’s believed to be record setting.Officials say the two months of higher-than-expected collections may reflect the Economic Impact Payments from the federal CARES Act, as well as additional unemployment compensation, and, therefore, do not expect the trend to continue.
Baxter County Treasurer Jenay Mize says county collections are up in every category.
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At the City of Mountain Home, Treasurer Marshella Norell says collections are even higher than last month, and a new milestone was set. The city’s 1% sales tax went over the $500,000 mark for a month for the first time. These funds are divided among the street, general and water/sewer accounts.
The city sales tax collected for August totaled $506,354, an increase of $65,262 or 14.8% from the same period in 2019.
Year-to-date, City of Mountain Home sales tax collections are up $304,749, representing an increase of 9.27%.
The city’s portion from the county’s sales tax for August was $225,822, which Norell says is also an all-time high. The monthly collection is up over August 2019 by $33,918, representing a 17.67% increase for the month.
Year-to-date county sales tax collected is $142,163 over last year or an increase of 10.01%.
Collections for the public safety sales tax for August stood at $189,882, an increase of $24,473 over August 2019 or 14.8%. Year-to-date collections for the public safety sales tax are up $114,281 over last year or 9.27%.
The Baxter County sales tax is divided among the county and the eight municipalities. In addition to Mountain Home, Gassville took in $37,697, Cotter received $17,597, Lakeview got $13,442, Norfork took in $9,270, Salesville received $8,163, Briarcliff got $4,281 and Big Flat took in $1,886.
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