Sales tax collections are strong in Upper Cumberland

Monday, May 2, 2011

One of the most obvious bright spots is the fact the area’s six largest counties all showed major increases during the month.

In Putnam, collections were up 10.3 percent over the previous year. In March 2011, collections were $8,125,643, up from $7,551,827 the previous year. Cumberland County had an increase of 13.7 percent, going from $2,706,045 in 2010 to $3,077,319 this year.

Next was Warren County, which had an increase of 7.6 percent ($1,664,866 to $1,791,905) followed by White County, which saw collections go from $890,359 to $965,493, or an increase of 8.4 percent.

In Macon County, collections rose 11.9 percent from $721,343 to $807,418 and in DeKalb County, the increase was 6.4 percent, going from $732,273 to $779,078.

The largest percentage increase was in Overton County, which rose 21.4 percent. In 2010, collections were $550,871 compared to $668,856 in 2011.

Only two counties, Jackson and Smith, saw decreases. Jackson County was down 6.1 percent while Smith County fell 4.3 percent. Pickett County remained unchanged from 2010 to 2011.

Cannon, Clay, Fentress and Van Buren counties all saw sales tax collection increases.

The Upper Cumberland as a whole saw a nice increase of 9.6 percent for March 2011 as compared to the previous year. The state of Tennessee had an overall rise of 8 percent.

For the previous 12 months, the Upper Cumberland is up 4.6 percent from 2010. Total collections for that period are $208,401,769 compared to $199,199,289 in 2010. That’s just ahead of the entire state, which saw an increase of 4.3 percent.

The only Upper Cumberland counties to show a decrease in the 12-month period are Fentress (-1.3 percent), Jackson (-2 percent) and Van Buren (-1.6 percent).