BY MURRAY BISHOFF, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR/Special to the Cassville Democrat
Sales tax revenue to Barry County cities and county government entities ended 2023 on a down note, with five of the seven cities receiving less than they did a year ago.
The calendar-year totals showed more gains overall from the previous year, but a much more mixed picture than the last three years following the end of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic surge in local shopping.
In addition to monthly sales tax dispersion, the Missouri Department of Revenue (DOR) sent out interest payments for the rest of 2023 in the last week of December. At least $550 was sent, though not all the recipients specified the interest amount received. DOR sends letters to each recipient after distributing funds by wire to identify which account should receive the sums. Various sums were so small, like 1 cent for the sunsetted Monett tax for the Justice Center or 39 cents for the city of Exeter, that the amount sent did not cover the cost of postage for the paper notice mailed. Those totals where documented have been included in each tax covered in this report.
Barry County’s seven cities received $980,459.53 for the month, a drop of 10 percent from a year ago. Cassville and Seligman were the only towns to top last December’s sums. It was the first
December drop overall since 2018.
Cassville bounced back from its break in the 16-month run of gains with $116,239.37 from its 1 percent tax paying general bills. That was up $6,972.97, or 6 percent, from a year ago, plenty to wipe out the red ink in November.
Seligman’s 1 percent general fund tax marked its second consecutive month of gains, receiving $15,151.04, up $2,353.85, or 18 percent, from a year ago. The total from both months wiped out the red ink from September and October, just like the August gain wiped out the July loss, ultimately keeping pace with 2022.
Purdy’s 1 percent sales tax yielded $3,680.09, down $1,642.11, or 31 percent, from a year ago. It was the lowest December disbursement since 2018.
Wheaton slipped back into its old pattern in December, where the 1 percent general fund tax brought in 2.4 times the amount generated by the .5 percent tax. The 1 percent general fund tax yielded $4,471.06, down a mere $163.25 from a year ago, while receipts from the .5 percent tax were down $691.39. It was the ninth drop in 12 months.
Exeter broke its two months of gains as its 1 percent general fund tax took in $1,810.15, down $707.36, or 28 percent, from a year ago.
Washburn had its fourth drop in five months, suggesting a real impact of the cessation of pandemic staying home. Its 1 percent general fund tax generated $3,701.61, down $1,629.65, or 30 percent, from the end of 2022.
Monett continues to drive the trend of declining returns with its two taxes totaling 1 percent supporting the city’s general spending. The taxes, with interest, generated $199,175.70 in December, down $47,223.43, or 19 percent, from a year ago. Monett’s tax revenues have been down in six of the last seven months, since its new use tax was introduced.
Barry County’s countywide taxes posted a slight gain on its general fund and a huge gain from its law enforcement sales tax. The county’s two older .5 percent taxes supporting general bills and road maintenance each brought in $242,872, both showing gains of about $460. Receipts from the law enforcement tax, compared to third-month collections a year ago, were up $62,787.82.
The separate .375 percent Barry County sales tax supporting central dispatching and 911 services brought in $182,152.20, up $351.25 from a year ago.
Year-end round-up
Sales tax continued to propel local governments in 2023. Notable in 2023 was the clear end of the pandemic surge in local sales in May, exactly three years after it started, revolutionizing the volume of local sales tax revenue with the lack of public travel.
The 23 different sales taxes collected by seven Barry County cities, the four countywide taxes going to the county government, the separate tax collected to run central dispatching, and the separate two sales taxes collected by the Barry-Lawrence and South Barry County Ambulance services collected a total of $23,020,958.95.
In 2022, total sales tax collected by those same government entities totaled $18,953,715.33, showing a growth of more than $4 million in one year.
In 2019, prior to the pandemic surge, the 22 city sales taxes (one less than the current number), the three countywide taxes (one less than now), the dispatching and ambulance sales taxes generated $15,655,944.51.
During the past year, new use taxes, collected from internet sales or out-of-county purchases that would otherwise have paid sales tax locally, began in Cassville, Monett and Seligman, adding more than $475,803 for government officials to spend on local services. In 2022, there were no use taxes in Barry County.
General Fund sales tax collected in 2023 for cities
City 1 percent general Compared to 2022
Cassville $1,348,031.44 +8%
Exeter $27,751.93 –3%
Monett $2,532,078.94 +1.5%
Purdy $69,857.99 –3%
Seligman $141,984.47 +.04%
Washburn $46,844.45 +28%
Wheaton $67,402.73 –21%
Total tax numbers
The following tax amounts reflect the total amount of tax collected by each city and county in 2023, as compared to 2022.
Cassville, which collected four taxes, took in a total of $3,201,167.86, up 3 percent, or $107,445, as its unprecedented 16-month run of consecutive sales tax gains ended. That followed an 8 percent boost from 2021, and up more than $650,000, or 28 percent, from pre-pandemic 2019. The city’s use tax, which started collections in September, brought in an additional $79,124.98 in four months, putting total sales tax/use tax revenues at more than $3,280,000. That’s up more than $950,000 in four years.
Exeter, with one tax, collected $27,751.93, a drop of 3 percent from 2022 after a 6 percent rise that year. Compared to 2019, the pandemic surge helped boost city sales tax income by more than $6,000, or 29 percent.
Monett has five active sales taxes and one sunsetted tax, the last one paying for the Justice Center that still brought in money for 10 months in 2023. The city received $5,598,252.84, breaking the $5 million mark for the third consecutive year. That total is down $47,548.35 after drops in eight of the last 12 months. However, adding in the new use tax, collected for the last seven months, revenues rise to $5,950,339.21, up 5 percent from 2022 and up more than $700,000 from pre-pandemic 2019. The addition of the Monett use tax appears to have directly impacted the city’s overall tax collections, and thus county totals, which has not taken place in any other bi-county city that added a use tax.
Purdy, with three taxes, collected $139,715.49, a drop of almost $5,000, or 3 percent, for the year, after seeing an 8 percent gain in 2022. Over the past four years, Purdy’s tax income has stayed remarkably stable, rising by only $627.06.
Seligman with its four sales taxes, generated $319,385.03, down a mere $60.58 from a year ago. Add in the new use tax Seligman has collected since February, and the total reaches $363,975.58, up 14 percent. Compared to pre-pandemic 2019, Seligman’s sales and use tax revenues have grown by more than $106,600, or 41 percent.
Washburn, with three taxes, produced $93,748.90 for the year. That was up $20,737.06 after a full year of having its Dollar General store in operation, a 28 percent increase after income shot up 30 percent in 2022. Prior to the pandemic surge and the Dollar General store, city taxes brought in over $34,400 less than in 2023.
Wheaton, with two taxes, produced $99,405.29, as its tax totals came into closer balance after years of the one-cent sales tax bringing in more than double what the half-cent tax generated. The total was down 18 percent, or almost $22,000 less than a year ago. Instead of an even dip, totals for the general fund were down 21 percent for the year while the half-cent tax for maintaining streets was down 10 percent. Compared to pre-pandemic 2019, Wheaton’s sales tax income has risen by more than $28,000 in four years.
Barry County saw a full year of collections from its law enforcement sales tax, which started in the last three months of 2022, in addition to its two taxes totaling 1 percent for the county’s general fund and its half-cent tax for road maintenance. The county’s general fund received $3,466,376.14, up by $897.50, or .5 percent from a year ago.
The four taxes combined generated $9,004,947.57, up 40 percent, or more than $2.56 million, with the law enforcement tax bringing in almost all of that. Prior to the pandemic and the law enforcement sales tax, county officials had less than $4.9 million to spend.
Barry County 911, supported by a 3/8 percent sales tax, garnered $2,092,716.46 for the year, up a mere $10,468.06 from a year ago. Prior to the pandemic surge in local sales, income for the year was almost $500,000 less.
South Barry County Ambulance District, south of Butterfield, reported receiving $1,104,755.54 from its eight-cent sales tax, a drop of $9,405.72, or 1 percent, from a year ago. That sum has grown by almost $339,000, or 44 percent, from four years ago.
The Barry-Lawrence Ambulance District collected $1,339,077.17 from its half-cent sales tax collected from Freistatt to Purdy, a drop of $7,126,11 from a year ago. Prior to switching to sales tax in 2019, the ambulance district serving northern Barry County received around $330,000 in property taxes. In the past four years, revenue from the sales tax has grown by almost $290,000.
