COUNTY SALES TAX RUNNING AHEAD OF LAST YEAR

JACKSON - At the mid-year point, receipts from Cape Girardeau County's half-cent sales tax are running about 7 percent ahead of last year.

With six of the 12 sales-tax checks in, Auditor H. Weldon Macke said there is a pretty good trend developing and he is optimistic the pace will continue about the same for the rest of the year.

"If we get anything at all the rest of the year like we have had, we'll finish with growth of nearly 7 percent," said Macke.

A growth at that pace would be the county's highest since the 1980s, when sales tax climbed consistently at levels of 6 to 8 percent. In 1990, sales tax growth slowed to 4.46 percent; to .28 percent in 1991; and then bounced back to 5.08 percent last year.

Macke said the sales-tax increase is a reflection of improvement in the economy as well as increased sales that are being generated by the Wal-Mart Supercenter that opened 15 months ago. In addition, new-car sales are also increasing, which plays a big role in raising sales-tax revenues, he said.

The June sales-tax check for Cape Girardeau County was $435,085, the second largest check ever received since the county began collecting the sales tax in 1980. The highest amount was received in March, when $469,823 was taken in.

During June 1992, sales-tax receipts totaled $422,108; in June 1991, $361,559 was collected.

Overall for the year, total sales-tax collections in Cape County have been $1,710,838. At this time in 1992, total receipts were $1,600,330; in 1991 receipts were $1,522,484; and in 1990 receipts totaled $1,533,241 for the first six months.

In 1992, Cape County's total sales-tax revenue was $3,223,762, which was a record.

State law requires the county commission to use half of the sales-tax revenue to roll back its property tax rate for general revenue. Cape County, however, has not had a property tax since 1982, even though one could have been collected.

Macke said it is likely that Cape County would be able to have a tax levy of 1 or 2 cents this year.

At some point, sales-tax growth could reach the point where the county will have to roll back its road and bridge property tax levy, which is now 23 cents.

Macke said he doubted whether that point would be reached this year.