COUNTY SALES-TAX REVENUE DOWN IN JULY

JACKSON -- After six months of sales-tax-revenue increases, Cape Girardeau County's July receipts took a dip.

However, total sales-tax revenue for the year is still up more than 7 percent over the same time last year.

Sales-tax revenue for July 1998 totaled $414,910. A year ago, sales taxes brought in $472,350.

"We were really up, now we're really down," said H. Weldon Macke, county auditor. "But we're not really worried."

The dip could be due to any number of factors, said Macke. "It might have been a time element. Someone might have mailed their sales-tax check a little late," he said.

Overall, the sales-tax picture for 1998 has been positive, Macke said.

Through the first seven months of the year, the county has collected $2.8 million. In 1997, the first seven months brought in $2.6 million in sales taxes.

Since the county funds the general-revenue portion of its budget exclusively with sales-tax money, the continued increase is good news to county officials.

Sales-tax figures for Cape Girardeau County have been up between 4 and 10 percent each year since 1990. The only exception was 1991, when a recession resulted in less than a 1 percent increase in sales taxes over the previous year.

Macke said sales-tax figures seem to be cyclical. He said he hopes that the figures will turn around next month, and the county will continue on its upward swing for 1998.

Sales tax revenue

1997 1998

January $350,297 $398,655

February 194,488 218,184

March 545,742 615,133

April 338,749 353,525

May 209,160 217,003

June 500,744 588,406

July 472,350 414,910

Totals $2.6 million $2.8 million