Cape County's sales tax dips, but use-tax revenue doubles

After reaching record levels in 2020, Cape Girardeau County’s sales-tax receipts are running more than 6% behind last year’s pace through the first two months of 2021.

February’s county sales-tax receipts, reported Monday by county Treasurer Roger Hudson, were $611,856.63, 2.35% less than the $626,568.83 in sales tax revenue the county received last February.

By and large, the county’s monthly sales tax report reflects taxes collected during the previous month. February’s tax receipts, for example, includes much of the sales-tax revenue generated in the county during January.

Just as this month’s sales-tax receipts fell short of last February’s tax receipts, last month’s sales-tax revenue of $612,957.74 was nearly 9.8% lower than the $679,507.71 in sales tax the county received in January 2020.

For the first two months of 2021, Cape Girardeau County has received $1,224,814.37 compared to $1,306,076.54 collected in January and February of last year, for a decline of just more than 6.2%.

In 2020, Cape Girardeau County’s half-cent sales tax generated a record $7,791,131.24 following three consecutive years in which the county’s sales-tax revenue amounts were between $7.3 million and $7.4 million.

Based on last year’s sales-tax receipts, most retail sales and other transactions subject to the county’s sales tax were not adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as there were only two months — April and June — in which tax revenue fell below “same month” tax receipts in 2019.

Other tax revenue

In addition to the sales-tax revenue, Cape Girardeau County received $611,856.61 this month through its half-cent Proposition One tax, which, added to last month’s Prop One revenue, brings the tax’s year-to-date revenue to $1,226,340.06. The county’s half-cent law enforcement and safety tax, which went into effect last fall, generated $1,192,173.97 in January and February.

Meanwhile, Cape Girardeau County received $387,722.44 in use-tax revenue this month. The use tax is basically a tax on out-of-state and internet purchases and is taxed at a rate equal to the total of the county’s other taxes. Through the first two months of 2021, the use tax has generated $559,079.38 for the county, more than twice as much as the $273,071.85 it generated in the first two months of last year.

That increase can be attributed to growing sales by online retailers as well as an increase in the use-tax rate last fall corresponding with the addition of the county’s law enforcement and safety tax.

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