HERMANN — With the largest December General Fund sales tax check received in the last six years — if not ever received — Gasconade County has taken in more than $1.2 million this year, exceeding what was thought to be an unlikely budget projection penciled into the operating budget in January.

County Clerk Lesa Lietzow, the chief budget officer, estimated General Fund sales tax revenue of $1.2 million mostly as a way to balance out the figures in this year’s county government spending plan. As it turned out, fueled in large part by a prolonged bout of inflation, that projection was met and exceeded with the arrival of the county’s December sales tax reimbursement check from the Missouri Department of Revenue. This month’s check, reflecting sales made during November, is for $113,483.

“December this year was the highest month…since I’ve been keeping track,” said County Treasurer Mike Feagan.

Lietzow’s projection of $1.2 million in sales tax revenue proved to be spot on.

“That has never happened before,” she told the County Commission at last week’s session held in Hermann.

The total sales tax revenue of $1,200,185 marks the third consecutive record-setting year for General Fund sales tax revenue. This year’s total is $77,861 more than last year’s $1,122,323.

The second bit of good news for county administrators is that the December use-tax reimbursement amount of $24,958 pushed the year’s total for this tax to $237,081 — considerably more than officials had hoped for when the use tax was adopted last year. The use tax is a sales tax of 1.325 cents on the dollar applied to purchases made from out-of-state vendors.

Of that 1.325 cents, 1 cent says with county government and .325 cents is directed to Gasconade County Enhanced 911. This month that amounts to about $9,000, Feagan said.

Also arriving across the financial wire was the county’s first significant reimbursement of the half-cent law enforcement sales tax. That amount was $73,346, of which $55,234 stays with the county and $18,411 will be divided among five of the county’s six municipalities. The total amount is a bit deceiving. Lietzow pointed out that the law enforcement sales tax should generate the same amount as the General Fund sales tax because they both are half-cent sales taxes.

But as noted, some businesses that collect the sales tax file their taxes with the state on a quarterly basis, meaning that some won’t remit what they’ve collected until the end of the year. That money should show up in either the January or February reimbursement check.

Feagan noted that the county’s balance sheet “looks really good.”

Indeed, not only are sales tax revenues strong, the ledger’s bottom line is made healthier by having $2.3 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money still in the bank. And, Feagan noted, what’s in the bank is earning more interest now than in recent years, another factor in the county’s solid financial footing. Thanks to recent regular increases in the interest rate by the Federal Reserve Bank, the county is receiving 2.3 percent on the taxpayers’ money. That compares to a rate of 0.5 percent earned previously.

Meanwhile, the Commission heard that Circuit Court Associate Judge Ada Brehe-Kruger’s schedule will become a little more crowded in March with the start of a Family Treatment Court program in Gasconade and Osage counties. Treatment Court Administrator Sherry Huxol explained the upcoming program as part of her request for $500 a month from Gasconade County to help pay the cost of a defense attorney. Osage County also will be asked for $500 a month to pay the $1,000-a-month bill to defense attorney Paul Schmanke of Owensville. That’s the only expense Gasconade County will have related to the twice-a-month Family Treatment Court activity, Huxol said.

Much like the Drug & DWI Court now in place, the Family Treatment Court will monitor the families’ compliance with the treatment programs proscribed for families whose children have been placed in the state’s care. There are many of those, Huxol said, noting that 400 children are in foster care in the 20th Judicial Circuit, which includes Gasconade, Osage and Franklin counties.

Retiring Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, used the occasion to urge county residents to use the Hermann Area District Hospital (HADH) in an effort to keep the hospital’s doors open.

“I think there are some real concerns there” about the hospital’s future, he said.

“Last year, they lost $2 million,” he added. “We have a real potential for losing the Hermann hospital. I think it’s time the citizens of the area use that hospital,” he said.

Miskel noted that HADH has pared some services and more cuts might be coming.

“They’re honing down,” he said, referring to the pending closure of the hospital’s clinic in Owensville and the year-end closing of the Home Health Care program. Hospital officials are trying to find another organization to take over the Home Health Care program, as well as find a partner to keep the local hospital in business.

The presiding commissioner, who steps down Dec. 31, said he was making the plea to the public as a way to alert residents to the possibility of not having a local hospital.

“I just want to let the people know,” he said.