HERMANN — With the final month of receipts to come in, Gasconade County has topped the $1-million mark in two of its countywide sales taxes.

The $107,048 General Revenue Fund sales tax check received this month puts county government in a good position to post its fourth consecutive record level of General Revenue money. The amount received this month pushes the county’s year-to-date total to $1,118,847 — more than $32,000 ahead of the amount received through the first 11 months of 2022.

The General Revenue Fund sales tax produced a total of $1,200,185 last year. During the past three years, the sales tax has produced more than $100,000 in December in each of those years. If it continues that trend with next month’s reimbursement check from the Missouri Department of Revenue, the county would easily surpass the 2022 total.

The County Commission Thursday morning received the latest sales tax figures from County Treasurer Mike Feagan.

The other county sales tax that crossed the $1-million threshold is the half-cent Law Enforcement Sales Tax (LEST), which is shared with five of the county’s six municipalities. This month’s LEST reimbursement check is for $75,702 — the third-largest amount received this year. This month’s receipt pushed the total LEST amount to $1,023,314. Of that, county government gets $767,486 while the five cities receive $255,828. Under the legislation approved by voters in April 2022, the county receives 75 percent of the total funds while the cities receive 25 percent.

The other sales tax that continues to surprise county administrators if the Use Tax, which is the county sales tax applied to purchases made from out-of-state vendors, primarily online purchases. The November check for the Use Tax is for $38,850. That puts the year-to-date total at $479,574, which puts the county in a strong position to receive at least $500,000 this year from the tax — considerably more than initial projections of as much as $300,000.

Feagan said that in a county the size of Gasconade County, the amount received so far is a good amount. “We had no idea of what to expect,” the treasurer said.

This is the second full year of collection of the Use Tax, which was approved in April of 2021. Last year’s amount totaled $237,081.

Regarding the LEST, here is the breakdown of the amounts received by the cities for this month and for the year:

Owensville — $11,607, $117,687; Hermann — $9,064, $92,098; Bland — $2,018, $20,466; Rosebud — $1,766, $17,907; Gasconade — $757, $7,674.

Yet to be received — and generating much interest among county administrators — is the initial revenue generated by the county’s 3-percent sales tax on marijuana sales. That tax was approved in April of this year and became effective Oct. 1. Apparently, it is taking a while for marijuana dispensaries to work this tax into their collections process. The Missouri Constitution amendment, which legalized marijuana use as approved by voters in November 2022, contained an automatic 6-percent state sales tax on marijuana sales. County and municipal sales taxes of 3 percent were dependent on votes within those jurisdictions.

There is only one marijuana retail shop in the county, CADES, which is located in Hermann.

Feagan said the first numbers for marijuana sales tax revenue should be available before the end of the year.

“We should know in December,” he said, adding that several counties are asking the state revenue agency about a lack of sales tax information from the marijuana retailers.