HERMANN — Gasconade County’s various sales taxes continue to perform strongly through the first four months of the year.

The General Fund sales tax, which has set records amounts of revenue in the past three years, is running more than $25,000 ahead of the amount produced during the first four months of last year, according to figures presented Thursday morning by County Treasurer Mike Feagan.

April’s General Fund sales tax reimbursement check from the Missouri Department of Revenue was for $106,373, pushing the four-month total to $407,208, compared to the $381,851 received during the same period a year ago.

Feagan said the size of this month’s check is surprising for this time of year.

“That’s almost a December number,” he said, referring to the larger checks more common at year’s end.

In the past three years, county government has received $1.037 million, $1.122 million and $1.200 million, respectively, to set record amounts of revenue. County government broke the $1-million mark in 2018 with $1.006 million and then fell to $990,969 in 2019.

Also doing well to the surprise of county administrators is the use tax — the sales tax applied to purchases made from out-of-state vendors that do not have a brick-and-mortar presence within Missouri. This sales tax is applied primarily to purchases made online, which peaked during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, but apparently remained strong even as more customers ventured out to do shopping in person as the pandemic eased.

The April use-tax check of $47,156 is the largest amount received since the tax became effective in October of 2021. Through the first four months, the use tax has generated $142,040. That compares with the total amount received in 2022 of $237,081. If the pattern of payments seen during this year’s first quarter holds, the 2023 total use-tax revenue could easily top last year’s total amount.

“Again, it’s very good,” said Feagan of this month’s use-tax check, which apparently signals a continuing trend of online shopping. County officials have not been counting on this source of revenue to bolster its financial footing.

“For us, this is a great thing,” the county treasurer added.

And, finally, the third leg of the sales tax stool — the half-cent tax for law enforcement that is shared with five of the counties' municipalities — also remains strong. This month’s law enforcement tax check for the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department is $69,555 about $250 less than the highest amount yet received of $69,800 in February. This will be the first full year the law enforcement sales tax will have been collected. The tax became effective in October of last year.

Thus far in 2023, the tax has produced $277,504 for county government while the five municipalities have received a total of $92,501.

Under the revenue-sharing agreement, the county keeps 75 percent of the revenue and the cities each get a share of 25 percent of the total based on population. The cities’ portions are based on population figures from the 2020 U.S. Census.

Here’s what each of the cities received in April and the year-to-date totals:

Owensville – $10,665; $42,550.

Hermann – $8,346; $33,300.

Bland – $1,854; $7,400.

Rosebud – $1,622; $6,475.

Gasconade – $695; $2,775.