County Collections Show Eastward Uptick

Susan Marshall, Madison County’s tax collector, said the 12.34 percent increase in state sales and use taxes that her office collected last year is a product of land sales and population growth.

That jump nearly tripled the next best collection growth in Arkansas’ six most northwestern counties (see chart, p. 8). That brought Madison County up to $2.2 million for its annual state and use tax total, or nearly 20 times smaller than Washington County.

Marshall, in her second term as head collector, has worked in the collections office since 1982. She said 2002’s jump is the largest she remembers.

“Just the traffic flow through this office has increased a lot,” Marshall said. “A lot of people have farms and are selling off portions, and the growth from Northwest Arkansas is moving east.”

The total state sales and use tax collected by the six-county area was $123.9 million or about 7 percent of the $1.683 billion collected statewide. The statewide total includes, however, includes additional taxes collected that are not attributable to a specific county.