Kingsport-Bristol knocks sales tax collections out of the park, again

a cash gift

Despite some soft spots in the overall economy, sales tax collections in the Kingsport-Bristol Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) continue outperforming other Northeast Tennessee markets.

Kingsport-Bristol had the second highest year-over-year increase in seasonally adjusted collections in July and outperformed the state gain by 1.7 points.  Nashville’s MSA had the highest gain. And when you look at how Northeast Tennessee’s four metro areas have performed this year, Kingsport-Bristol led the pack four of seven months and has increased its year-to-date market share every month except January. That’s benchmarked against the 2017 annual market share of each metro area.

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According to seasonally adjusted collection data from the state Commission on Intergovernmental Relations with Middle Tennessee State University’s Department of Economics and Finance sales tax collections statewide were up 7% in July. Nashville led the state’s metro regions with a 9.1% increase followed by Kingsport-Bristol with 8.7%. Only one metro area had a negative year-over-year position. Cleveland’s MSA was down 2.3%.

The Johnson City metro area has not enjoyed the market share position of its neighbor to the north. It has yet to have a positive number on that year-to-date metric.  So far this year, it has posted small positive year-over-year gains in all but two months, but like the NE Tenn. market share picture it has seen its Tri-Cities share decreased for eight of the past nine months. Johnson City’s best Tri-Cities performance was in September 2014 when it had 51.2% of collections. In July the position was 47.7% which is down 3.5% from July last year.

Consumer spending in the U.S. was up sharply in July putting the economy on the road to a good start of the third quarter. Household spending – what we paid for all goods and services – rose 0.4% according to the Commerce Department.

At the same time, the saving rate fell 0.1% to 6.7% as consumers outspent their income. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of the demand in the economy.