Sales Tax Collections Down From Last Year, Commission Told

Oconee County’s expenditures and revenue for the first half of the 2020 Fiscal Year were on target with one exception, county Finance Director Wes Geddings said Tuesday in making his quarterly financial report to the Board of Commissioners.

The exception is sales tax collections, which were lower in November and December of 2019 than they were a year earlier, Geddings said.

Distributions lag collections by a month, so the November and December figures actually reflect taxes collected in October and November.

Geddings focused on the second quarter of the Fiscal Year, or October, November and December, in discussing the revenues from the county’s Local Option Sales Tax and the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

An examination of distributions for the entire first half of the Fiscal Year (July through December) shows that both LOST and SPLOST revenues were lower in four of the six months.

The January tax distributions–reflecting December collections and but not included in the second quarter financial report–also were down compared with January of 2019.

Sales Tax revenues were lower in eight of the last 12 months compared with a year earlier, and the county had a drop in total sales tax collection during the last 12 months compared with a year earlier of more than 2 percent.

Before receiving the financial report on Tuesday, the Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a rezone request by Bill Ross for 62 acres between Old Epps Bridge Road and SR Loop 10 for a large retirement community and granted a variance allowing buildings in the community to exceed county height limits.

For more on the story, with a video of the Commission meeting, please go to Oconee County Observations.