Treasurer Sampson told the Faulkner County Budget and Finance Committee on Oct. 31 that county revenues are running ahead of last year and that sales-tax receipts have risen sharply since June.

Sampson said county general-fund and other fund balances were reviewed and that total sales-tax receipts year-to-date stood well above last year’s pace. “So I'm anticipating we're probably gonna break the $15,000,000 mark in sales tax,” Sampson said, noting a multimonth increase and a larger one-time payment that has affected year-over-year comparisons.

The treasurer gave a fund-by-fund readout, including figures for the county general fund and road funds and said total sales-tax collections for the year were roughly $11,000,001.16 at the time of his report, about 78% of the projection with the county about 75% of the way through the fiscal year. He also noted American Rescue Plan and other federal/coronavirus relief funds in the county ledger.

Sampson cautioned that the next three months would be critical to see whether the trend holds. He said the county was up roughly $1.4 million over last year after removing an earlier anomalous payment, and that three months of upcoming collections would show whether the increase is sustained.

A committee member asked whether the sales-tax growth is concentrated in the city of Conway or spread across the county. Sampson said he runs collections by county only and does not have a city-by-city breakdown in his monthly report.

Committee members discussed timing for the county’s budget work. The chair and staff confirmed an all-day budget session has been set aside (staff referenced Oct. 31 as a hold date for a full budget day) and said the judge’s office and IT would prepare data and grant/contract materials for that session.

The committee did not take formal action on revenue projections during the meeting; members directed staff to continue preparing materials for the upcoming budget work sessions.