Both the City of Troy and Pike County are reporting an uptick in sales tax revenues during the first months of the fiscal year.

Harry Sanders, county administrator, said the upturn in sales tax revenue could be attributed to two things.

“That means that the economy in this county is more active,” Sanders said. “There are more people out spending more money, which means people should be doing better. And, it also means that more money flows into the school system budgets and the county commission, who receive those funds.”

County sales tax revenues are up 4.68 percent compared to the prior fiscal year, with revenues topping $2.636 million from October 2014 through January 2015.

Alton Starling, city clerk for Troy, said the city had seen an increase in sales tax during December and January, which could be thanks to the lower cost of gasoline during that timeframe.

Through January, the city had collected $1.966 million. “Last year, through this time period, we collected $1.882 million,” Starling said.

Starling said the city broke down taxes in two different ways.

“We break the sales tax down into to different ways,” Starling said. “We have a gross receipt and sales tax and a consumer use tax. Consumer use tax is a better gauge of how the city is doing and how the economy is doing, because the consumer use tax is based on what consumers buy.”

For December, the City of Troy reported $503,000 collected for the Consumer Use tax. “We had a big October,” Starling said. “We collected $31,000 more this December than we did last year. January was a big one this year as well.”

Starling said more people may have shopped locally during the holidays, driving the increase in December’s sales tax revenues.

Starling said there had been 1.4 million spent in the economy for Gross Receipts and Sales tax. The city reported $203,000 in Consumer Use tax through the month of January, compared to $219,000 in the prior fiscal year.

Starling said occasionally the city would see an uptick in sales tax revenue during football season or the holidays.

“Well, it’s hard to put a finger on why,” Starling said. “We have U.S. Highway 231 coming right through Troy, so when people travel more you can see an uptick on what people are purchasing when they’re going through town. Also, if you have more home games through October and December then it would go up. If you have a big football game, then it will go up.”