Year-to-date sales tax receipts in Jonesboro and Craighead County remain flat

Northeast Arkansas’ hub city Jonesboro had its sales tax receipts rebound in May after falling in April, and the city is now on pace with its collections during the first five months of 2017. Jonesboro collected $1.556 million in May, up 5.17% ($76,533) compared with the same month last year, according to the city.

For the year, the city has collected $7.507 million in city and sales use tax, a 0.1% increase from the previous year. The city had dropped 9.98% ($139,105) in April, and for the year was behind in projected collections until those stronger numbers in May. It was the least amount of sales and use taxes reported in April since 2014 when the city collected $1.265 million. It was the second consecutive month the city had a decline.

Sales and use tax collections are 60 days behind, meaning the May numbers represent March transactions. Mayor Harold Perrin told Talk Business &Politics he’s glad the city planned for the possibility of stagnant sales tax growth, and the rebound was needed.

“Right now the city collections were up $76,000 that one month (May),” Perrin said. “Even though we’re down $105,000 (city and county tax included) so far from last year, it appears we’re in a little bit of an upward trend. But we’re still below what we’d like to feel really comfortable. We’re still about $15,000 above budget. Thank heavens we budgeted low. Our finance department is pretty darn good.”

When compared to the city’s projected budget, the numbers are slightly behind the projection. The city anticipated collecting $73,825 more during the first five months, a 1% drop from the projection.

Craighead County collected $1.651 million in May, a less than 1% drop from May in 2017, according to the Craighead County Treasurer’s Office. For the year, the county has collected $8.263 million in sales and use taxes, a 1.9% drop compared with receipts collected during the first five months of 2017.

Perrin warned city officials last year he was concerned about the potential impacts of internet sales on sales tax collections. The city set collections records during the past several years and has experienced steady growth for decades.

Civic leaders, economists, and others have competing theories as to why Northeast Arkansas has experienced consistent economic growth during the last four decades. The region’s diverse jobs base – agriculture, food processing, health and medical, Arkansas State University, professional services – have had an insulating effect, but economic gains are also tied to population growth.

Since the early 1970s, Jonesboro has grown by about 3% each year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As of 2016 the city had about 76,000 residents. Jonesboro was the fifth largest city in Arkansas based on population in the 2010 census. The city is the second largest in terms of geographic size, trailing Little Rock.