Jonesboro, Craighead County sees sales tax slowdown in March report
by March 28, 2016 6:43 pm 172 views
Craighead County Treasurer Terry McNatt on Monday (March 28) used a weightlifting analogy to describe the county’s one-cent sales tax revenues being up only three-tenths of 1% in March.
“Sometimes, it is hard to chin the bar some months,” McNatt said of the $1.369 million reported in the March report, a 0.32% increase.
The county’s one-cent sales tax reported in March are from January commerce. The city’s one-cent sales tax revenue was $2.192 million, down 0.25% compared to the March 2015 report.
McNatt and Jonesboro Deputy Finance Director Mike Burroughs said the numbers are typically down in March, based on the two month lag time in collections. The city’s sales tax brought in $3.171 million in February (collections for the December holidays), up 3%, while the county’s sales tax brought in $1.956 million in February, up 15.6%.
While the percentage gain was lower in March, the overall sales tax picture this year is good, McNatt and Burroughs said. Through the first quarter, the city’s sales tax brought in $7.8 million, up nearly $193,000 from the same time in 2015. The county’s sales tax collected $4.8 million, up about $130,000 from the same time in 2015.
McNatt and Burroughs cited a slow down on spending after Christmas may have played a role in the lower than expected numbers.
“People try to recoup the money from the holidays,” McNatt said, noting the new year often gives people an opportunity to build their business or their family budgets.
Gas prices have also inched up in the Jonesboro area, with prices going up about 40 cents in the past several weeks. Craighead County has also seen a drop in the unemployment rate in the past year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate in Craighead County was 3.9% in January, down from the 5.8% in January 2015.
Burroughs said the unemployment rates can sometimes be a lagging indicator of what is going on.
“We have some of the lowest job rates in the state. But the salary, the pay may not reflect it yet,” Burroughs said. “It may take a while to catch up.”