Sales tax revenues were down for Floyd County this month, but Finance Director Gary Burkhalter said it is unlikely to affect projects in the 2007 special purpose, local option sales tax package.
“We’re hoping this is just a one-time hit,” he said. “We should be back to normal collections next month.”
Burkhalter said the Georgia Department of Revenue is refunding sales taxes a Floyd County manufacturer
mistakenly collected during a period of at least 18 months. The drop reflects the local share of the payback to the company.
Revenue Department spokesman Charles Willey would not name the business or comment about specifics of the case.
“It’s a matter of confidentiality between the department and the individual taxpayer,” he said.
The county’s local option sales tax check from the state in March was for $655,529.74, which is $138,042.48 less than the payment for March 2006. Rome and Cave Spring also recorded declines.
“We’re not expecting this to be a downward trend,” Burkhalter said, pointing to increases in the January and February distributions. “This shouldn’t affect our SPLOST program.”
There is a two-month lag between tax collection at the retail level and the state’s distribution.
SPLOST revenues also were down, although a gap in collections accounts for some of the disparity.
Retailers stopped collecting for the 2003 SPLOST program in November 2005, although residual payments continue to trickle in from the state. Collections for the 2006 package started April 1, which means the money will not get to the local governments until mid-June.
Burkhalter said the next monthly check from the state, expected next week, will provide a clearer picture of the situation.
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