Tax-collection information for 2010 was interpreted by Allen County commissioners Thursday afternoon as indication that the local economy is doing better.
County Treasurer Sharon Utley said sales tax money collected through November 2010 was slightly more than $19,000 above collections for the first 11 months of 2009. The December 2010 collections won’t be known until later this month.
For the first 11 months of 2009, $1,133,085.87 came to the county’s way through a half-cent tax assessed to support solid waste disposal at the landfill and its share of a half-cent for county and municipal general operations.
Of note is that the uptick in sales tax collections is confirmation that the quarter-cent tax Allen Countians approved Nov. 2 will meet projected income of $400,000 a year to support construction and equipping of a new Allen County Hospital. The average of the 11 months of income for 2010 from the half-cent solid waste tax was nearly $69,000 a month, which projects to $825,000 for the year, half of which is more than $400,000.
Another economic positive is that ad valorem tax collections though the end of 2010, on 2009’s abstract of $14,812,018.46, were slightly ahead of the previous year at 57.14 percent. A year earlier the percentage was 57.12.
When she closed the county’s 2010 financial records at noon Thursday, Utley said $8,464,334.66 in ad valorem taxes had been collected, $319,000 more than year before, when the abstract was $14,261,504.80.
Commissioners also made reappointments to several board positions and signed checks to complete end-of-year business in a meeting that lasted barely an hour.
Tax collections point to stronger economy
