Wednesday, Dec 29, 2010
The Upper Cumberland, which consists of 14 counties, continues to outpace the rest of Tennessee on sales tax collections. In fact, during November, the region saw an overall increase of 7.3 percent in sales tax collections, compared to 4.4 percent throughout the state.
The figures were released recently by officials from the Upper Cumberland Development District.
In the last 12 months, the Upper Cumberland region had a total sales tax collection of $205,137,662, up 2.9 percent from the previous year, which was under $200 million. The state of Tennessee, in the last 12 months, saw sales tax collections go up 1.7 percent.
For November, Putnam County, which has the largest amount of retail sales in the region, had collections of $6,345,602 in sales taxes, up 8.7 percent from the previous November collections of $5,838,831. In the latest three-month reporting period, Putnam County saw an increase of 5 percent and is up 4.1 percent in the 12-month period.
Cumberland County saw a big jump in sales tax collections in November as compared to the previous year. Sales tax collections in November 2010 were $3,566,074, compared to $3,153,906 in 2009, an increase of 13.8 percent. Cumberland County’s three-month total was up 4.5 percent and it was up 4.1 percent for the previous12 months.
The two other counties which typically have the next highest collections each month, Warren and White, also had significant gains in November 2010.
White County was up 7.9 percent, climbing over the $1 million mark with $1,001,183, up from $927,698 the previous November.
In Warren County, collections were $1,814,909 in November 2010, compared to $1,686,884 the previous year, or an increase of 7.6 percent.
Overton County has also shown steady improvement in sales tax collections. In November 2010, collections rose 2 percent, but in the previous three months, that number was 6.8 percent and was 6.3 percent for the previous 12 months, the largest percentage in the Upper Cumberland region.
In DeKalb County the numbers were also positive. Sales tax collections rose 10.7 percent in November, from $671,066 the previous year to $726,312.
Cannon and Macon counties also showed steady gains in the past year. Cannon County’s collections were up 5 percent from the previous year while Macon County showed an overall gain of 2 percent for the past 12 months.
The tale was not so good in Smith County, where November collections fell significantly over the previous year. For November 2010, Smith County collected $688,913, compared to $827,332 the previous year, a drop of 16.7 percent. For the previous three months, collections in Smith County fell 6.5 percent and were down 3.5 percent for the 12-month period.
A similar scenario played out in Jackson County, where collections have fallen for the entire year. In November, collections were down 5.8 percent from the previous year and were down 7.9 percent for the past 12 months.