COUNTY SALES TAX RECEIPTS ON RISE

JACKSON -- Merchants in Cape Girardeau County should be smiling all the way to the bank, if April sales tax figures are any indication.

The county's half-cent sales tax brought in $317,651 this month, 11 percent over last April. County Auditor Weldon Macke predicts the end of the year will bring a 7 percent total increase over 1994, which was a remarkable year for county revenue.

Totals from the city of Cape Girardeau's 1-cent sales tax are running higher than last year's by about $1,000.

The numbers are remarkable because 1994 was a banner year for the county and city.

In July, Macke attributed the revenue increase to Cape Girardeau County's reputation as the shopping mecca of the area. People traveling between St. Louis and Memphis stop here to eat, people traveling cross-county spend the night, and people who live in the area come for the hundreds of stores.

Now Macke has an additional theory.

"In 1994, people began to spend again after not spending," he said. "People built houses and paid sales tax on the lumber. Right now in Cape County there's a lot of home building and a lot of cars and pickups being sold."

The only really bad year in recent county history was 1991, when it only saw a 28 percent increase over the previous year. Macke said it was the result of a miniature recession.

Those things can't be predicted, so county leaders have to wait and see what's collected. They thought there would be a slump in sales tax when Marion, Ill., built its mall, but nothing happened, Macke said.

Then, when a Sam's Club went into Marion, they again thought people who shopped in Cape Girardeau may head into Illinois. Not so.

But even when collections haven't been good, Cape County hasn't suffered, at least not in the last couple of decades.

The city and county also collect a local use tax on merchandise purchased through television ads or catalogs. Before the tax passed in 1992, companies in one state could sell merchandise in another and never pay a sales tax.

Use tax collections have risen over the past years. The county has accumulated about $596,861 in use tax money, but can't spend any of it until the Missouri Supreme Court rules on whether it is legal or not. The U.S. Supreme Court said it is legal, but now the issue has gone back to individual states.

Macke said the county would keep its money with state agencies until a ruling is made.