County sales tax revenue up

Sales tax collections continue to rise in Kendall County, beating month over month and year over year nearly every time.

Collections in June beat out last June’s collection by more than $11,000 – with a growth of 2.43 percent. But this is no surprise to County Treasurer Sheryl D’Spain, who said nearly every month has beat the last year’s collections of the same month.

“We just continue to go up in the sales tax that we get. It’s amazing,” D’Spain said, adding the sales tax collections in the county have increased year over year for some time.

While D’Spain couldn’t pinpoint an exact cause for the constant increase or where the extra revenue comes from, she said it’s likely a combination of many factors, including population growth and the expansion of local business and years-old legislation that awarded online sales tax to the municipality products were being delivered to.

Many municipalities reported seeing jumps in sales tax collections in 2021 due to an increase in online shopping during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving fewer residents traveling to other nearby towns or counties to purchase items, but D’Spain noted the online buying trend hasn’t seemed to fade.