Scioto County Commissioner Bryan Davis said the county’s economy is coming back in a big way from the COVID-19 shutdown. In fact, sales tax revenue is up over $200,000 from June of 2019. April’s tax revenue showed a sharp year-to-year decline of $153,188.17.
Davis announced the revenue at Thursday’s Scioto County Commissioners Meeting. “Our economy is roaring back. You can quote me on that. It’s a good thing. Sales tax is strong.” Totals sales tax for June was over a million bucks at $1,188,458.85.
Davis said he wanted to check with the City of Portsmouth to find out where income tax numbers stand. The city gets most of its revenue from income tax. Scioto County ranks 32 out of 88 counties in the state with an unemployment rate of 10.8%. While lower than the state average of 11%, Davis said there’s room for improvement. “We need to get more people back to work, I hope our employment numbers go down soon.”
He credited Commissioner Crabtree and the Ohio Association of County Commissioners’ efforts to levy sales tax on online purchases with increasing revenue.
“We weathered COVID to date,” Davis said. “Things are moving forward.”
Joining Forces To Save Money
Davis also said that Scioto County Job and Family Services and Children Services will join forces to share employees. “There’s a lot of synergies there. In some cases, they are serving the same clients and be able and service those clients much better.”
The commissioner said recent cases of child abuse put the spotlight on the need for increased efforts to protect kids. “We’ve been shocked by some of the things we’ve read here lately. We really need to amp up our game and this is one way to do it. There’s a major concern with funding in both organizations. They need to maximize that funding to their best ability. They need to talk.:
Land Bank Sales
The county also brought in additional revenue by selling lots reclaimed by the land bank. Davis said, “We had our first land auction the other day. We sold seven lots for $4,600. The smallest sale was $75. One sold for $2300. Two did not receive a bid.” Davis said the county was looking at other ways to sell that property. “We’ll be preparing for the next round of sales. We’re getting there.”