Grant County sees higher revenue, sales tax receipts

EPHRATA — Grant County received about $1.1 million more in revenue in the first six months of 2021 than it did in the same period in 2020.

Grant County Treasurer Darryl Pheasant said Grant County received $25.285 million in revenue in the first six months of 2021, compared with $22.146 million in the first six months of 2020.

Pheasant said most of the revenue increase was driven by sales taxes. For the first six months of 2021, sales tax revenue is about $900,000 higher than projected in the 2021 budget, he said.

Pheasant said people still seem to be buying a lot online, even as businesses have reopened after extensive closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

State law allocates sales tax revenue to the locality where the order was placed. Grant County receives sales tax receipts for transactions made in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Sales tax receipts are up about 4.5% when 2021 is compared with the same period in 2020, Pheasant said.

“The economy is going strong. People haven’t slowed down spending,” he said.

The county also will receive $9 million in 2021 and $9 million in 2022 through the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA), passed by the U.S. Congress earlier this year. Any money received through ARPA will go into a separate fund, Pheasant said.

The money is designed to alleviate some of the fiscal strains placed on state, county and municipal budgets by the coronavirus pandemic. But county officials haven’t yet figured out how the money can be spent, he said, and so far there has been little guidance from the Washington State Auditor’s Office.

“No one knows what the rules are,” he said.

Grant County, like all counties in the state, saw revenue losses in its gas taxes, as people traveled less. Revenue generated through gas taxes goes to road maintenance.

Tourism, and the county’s tourism revenue, suffered losses in the pandemic, and the Grant County Fairgrounds lost revenue due to canceled events. Pheasant said those are examples of county departments that could qualify for ARPA funding, but nobody is sure yet. County officials have set up a committee to review the requests from county departments and determine which ones qualify for the ARPA funding. No date has been set for the committee’s meeting.