Commissioners look at sales tax revenue figures, report receipt of FEMA funds at Monday meeting

At their regular weekly meeting Monday, Ozark County Commissioners said the county’s total sales tax revenue for the year is still down, but the good news was that the month of May was up compared with May 2017.
General revenue, which comes from a half-cent sales tax and a half-cent utility tax, was $67,566.64, a 15.23 percent increase over May 2017, the commissioners said. While the total revenue so far this year is still 7.2 percent less than it was at this time in 2017, May was the smallest monthly loss so far this year, they said.
May has been one of the better months for revenue over the past four years. It was the third best month in 2015, second best in 2016 and  fourth best in 2017.
In the past three years, September was consistently the highest grossing month, with December or June in second place. February, May, August and November tend to be the lowest-grossing months for the county.
“We never know why it goes up or down,” Ozark County Presiding Commissioner John Turner said Monday. The county’s revenue is difficult to predict  because the tax includes things like residents’ vehicle purchases, which don’t occur at predictable times, he said.
In other news, Western District Commissioner Greg Donley said Monday that the county has finally received approval from FEMA for low-water crossing repairs on the west side. Donley said he expects the funds will be available after July 7 to reimburse the county for the repairs it has made so far. Donley also said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the county receiving financial assistance from the Community Development Block Grant program for improvements to flood-vulnerable roads and bridges.