A Reason for Optimism

Last year in this column I was lamenting the lack of snow while celebrating the relatively warm temperatures. That seems rather silly this year. However, like last year, I once again have good news to report.

As you all know, I try to regularly report the county sales tax numbers in this column. These figures derive from that half percent sales tax Door County (and most other counties in Wisconsin) charge. Merchants, innkeepers, restaurateurs, etc. collect this tax and submit it to the state (along with the state sales tax of five percent) and the state then redistributes the county tax portion back to the appropriate county. These distributions can be found – broken down by county – on the Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s website.

One of the things that is important to keep in mind when you look at these distributions is that the total for any month reflects exactly what was collected during the previous month. Each individual merchant (or innkeeper, or restaurant owner, etc.) may have differing deadlines for when the tax is due to be paid (i.e. monthly, quarterly, etc.). Thus, comparing January 2011 to January 2009, for instance, doesn’t provide any clear indication of an individual county’s economic health.

Looking at a broader picture of county sales tax collections, however, can provide at least some indication of the economic health of a county.

For some time these figures were grim, as a collection steadily dropped, which, in turn, means that spending on the peninsula dropped. And in a very small, largely insulated economy like Door County, this had far reaching implications.

Last year, things improved considerably with sales tax distributions to the county reaching their highest level since 2008, and this past year the distributions were even higher.

As the table below shows, tax revenue increased by $75,789.13 over the 2012 figure, an increase of 2.45 percent (note that in last year’s column I was hoping for a three percent increase in 2013). And, when you do the math (.005x = $75,789.13) this means that $15,157,826 more was spent on the peninsula in 2013 than in 2012!

The total sales tax distribution was also the highest Door County has received since the county sales tax was put into place.

The one fact that tempers all this good news is that this revenue has not kept pace with the cost of living/inflation. However, the steady increases during the past three years are reason to be optimistic about the coming year and it seems reasonable to expect that the sales tax revenues for 2014 will show at least a 2.5 percent increase … if not more!

2013 Sales Tax Collections