Sales-tax revenue rises for NW cities, counties

Latest report seen as surprisingly good

FAYETTEVILLE — Cities and counties in Northwest Arkansas got some surprisingly good news from the state last week about monthly sales-tax revenue.

Each of the four largest cities — Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville — had an increase in revenue from their 1% sales taxes as did Benton and Washington counties. The revenue received in November is from sales in September. Revenue for each city and county increased compared with November 2019.

Fayetteville received $2,128,259, an 8.32% increase from $1,964,803.

Springdale received $1,560,549, up 9.44% from $1,426,003.

Rogers received $1,841,077, a 3.45% i ncrease from $1,779,698.

Bentonville received $1,491,612, a 17.29% increase compared with $1,271,769.

Benton County received $1,019,369 in revenue from the county’s share of its 1% sales tax. That was a 12.46% increase from the $906,414 in November 2019.

Washington County received $761,836, a 10.45% increase over $689,745.

Kevin Springer, Fayetteville’s budget director, said, “I was very surprised, but also very pleased.”

Springer said the city had been waiting for the sales from September to indicate how the continuing coronavirus pandemic might affect the city’s finances.

He said September is typically a strong month with students returning to the University of Arkansas campus and events such as the Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally and Razorback football games normally giving the local economy a boost. The rally was canceled and attendance at Razorback games has been limited by the pandemic.

Springer said the growth across the county also was surprising.

“Washington County was higher than Fayetteville and Springdale,” he said. “Usually, it’s in the middle.”

Springer said Fayetteville’s sales-tax revenue is up about 4.755% through November over the same 10 months in 2019.

Wyman Morgan, Springdale’s finance director, said the city has come through the pandemic in better financial shape than anticipated in March when local, state and national health emergencies were declared and restrictions were placed on public gatherings and other activities.

Expectations were low earlier this year, Morgan said.

“That’s the highest month we’ve ever had in dollars,” he said.

Morgan said he expects the city will set a record for sales-tax revenue for 2020, topping $17 million. The city is budgeting for sales-tax revenue of more than $18 million in 2021, Morgan said.

“We’re finishing the year in the best financial condition we’ve been in the last 20 years,” he said.

Casey Wilhelm, finance director for Rogers, said she couldn’t point to any factor in the increase other than students returning to school. She said the city will see “at least” a 1% increase for the year compared with 2019, but the city has decided to budget for about $19.9 million in sales-tax revenue in 2021, the same amount as this year.

Jake Harper, Bentonville’s finance director, said his city regularly sees fluctuating sales-tax revenue, mostly because of rebates requested by businesses under a state program, so the monthly numbers aren’t surprising when they are up or when they are down. Harper said, for the year, the city is up about 4.85% over 2019 and should reach the 2020 budget target of $14.4 million. The city is budgeting about $15.4 million in sales-tax revenue for next year.

Washington County Treasurer Bobby Hill said he’s surprised that the pandemic hasn’t adversely affected the county’s revenue.

“We’ll easily make our budget projection, which was about $8.1 million,” Hill said. “Right now, we’re $300,000 to $400,000 above our projection.”

Brenda Guenther, Benton County comptroller, said the county’s sales-tax revenue has been “much better than expected.”

Benton County reduced its budget projection in June from $11.4 million to $10.02 million in anticipation of revenue losses in the pandemic. Using those adjusted figures, she said, the county is now more than $1.2 million over budget.