HERMANN – For the first three months of this year, Gasconade County’s General Fund Sales Tax has posted healthy amounts of revenue, putting 2026 on a pace ahead of last year’s revenue.

In his report to the County Commission Thursday morning, Treasurer Mike Feagan noted the March reimbursement check from the Missouri Department of Revenue is for $100,593.

Coupled with General Fund Sales Tax revenue received during the first two months, this tax is pushing the county ahead of the amount it received during the first quarter of last year by about $8,000 — $324,173 this year to $316,271 in 2025.

This month’s amount comes on the heels of February’s amount of $126,914, the largest monthly General Fund Sales Tax check received by county government.

While county administrators acknowledge the increase in revenue, they point out that they are battling a misperception among some members of the public that county government is building a big cushion.

“They think we’re flush with cash,” said Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, during Thursday morning’s regular weekly session. “We might have record revenue, but we also have record expenses,” he added, citing rising costs for equipment, salaries and benefits, insurance coverage and other expenses.

Not mentioned is that increased county revenue is in large part a result of continued high inflation at the retail level, especially at grocery stores. When prices move downward, so, too, will the amount of revenue generated by the sales taxes.

Meanwhile, the county’s two other major sources of sales tax revenue — the Use Tax and the Law Enforcement Sales Tax — posted more-normal amounts for March. The Use Tax generated $52,444, down more than $16,000 from the $68,735 received in February. Through the first three months, the Use Tax — the sales tax applied primarily to purchases made from out-of-state vendors — has generated $175,700. That’s more than $36,000 ahead of the amount produced by the Use Tax during the first three months of last year.

In 2025, the Use Tax produced $611,768; however, all of that does not into the county’s general coffer. Rather, the pot of Use Tax money is divided among the General Fund, the Road and Bridge Fund of the Road Department and the Sheriff’s Department.

A portion of the Use Tax also is allocated to the Enhanced-911 Program for operational expenses. Last year, the 911 Program received about $200,000 of the Use Tax revenue.

The Law Enforcement Sales Tax (LEST) produced a March amount of $67,638, about $21,000 less than the amount received in February. This tax is shared with five of the six municipalities in the county on a 75-25 basis, according to the cities’ populations.

So far this year, the LEST has produced $223,666 for the Sheriff’s Department and $74,555 for the five municipal police agencies. Last year, the LEST produced a total of $1.145 million.

Here are the monthly and year-to-date totals for the five municipalities: Owensville – $10,371, $34,295; Hermann – $8,116, $26,838; Bland – $1,893, $5,964; Rosebud – $1,578, $5,218; Gasconade – $676, $2,236.