For years, officials at the Barber County Courthouse in Medicine Lodge have watched as their neighbors drove to Pratt, Wichita and Augusta to buy new cars and trucks — taking their sales tax dollars with them.

No more.

“Now we get our share of it,” Sharon Gehlen, Barber County’s deputy treasurer, said Tuesday.

The state this year started a “destination-based” sales tax system, so goods purchased in Kansas are no longer taxed based on where they’re bought, but where they’re being delivered.

One result has been a windfall for sales-poor Barber County: In November, the county received $46,674 in sales tax revenues, a 19.4 percent increase from $39,087 in November 2002.

“It’s helping our (coffers), yes,” Gehlen said of destination-based sales taxes. “I’m sure there are places that are hurting.”

Metro areas hit

Those places are Kansas metropolitan areas — Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City — that have used sales taxes on retail sales to out-of-towners as a treasure chest to fund local government operations.

Lenexa, for example, saw a 30.7 percent drop in sales tax revenues in November from the year before. Jill Grube, the city’s finance director, said that was partly because several large retailers didn’t make their tax reports on time.

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But the new tax system has taken a bite, too, she said.

“We’re seeing a decline in our revenue due to the streamlined sales tax,” she said. “We’ll have to look at other revenues and cutting services.”

Across the state, November’s sales tax report showed massive shifts in revenues. Thirty-four of 80 Kansas counties with a sales tax saw increases or decreases of more than 10 percent of revenue from the year before. Ninety-nine cities across the state saw changes of greater than 10 percent. In Lawrence, sales tax revenues declined by just more than 2 percent.

Too early to tell

Despite the evidence since the system went into effect in July, officials and experts say the destination-based system is too new to judge, especially based on a one-month report. And, they noted, the state has been doing “relaxed” enforcement of the new system while kinks are worked out.

“We haven’t done much in the way of analysis yet,” said Steve Brunkan, a financial economist for the Kansas Department of Revenue. “We don’t feel like we’ve got enough data under our feet to give it a fair look.”

Kim Gulley, a spokeswoman for the Kansas League of Municipalities, agreed.

“It’s probably going to take a year or two of numbers under our belt,” she said. “I don’t think you can draw any conclusions from one month or two months.”

But officials in local governments are drawing conclusions.

“It’s going to help the smaller counties, there’s no doubt about it,” said Cindy Coons, county treasurer in Republic County, which saw tax revenues more than double in November thanks in part to a new 1 percent tax passed this year. “We’re a farming community, and we’re losing population — it’ll definitely help our type of county.”

Lawrence impact

Lawrence saw a 2.1 percent drop in sales tax revenues in November. Ed Mullins, the city’s finance director, said he didn’t think the new system would affect the city much.

“I don’t think we have some major retailers who are delivering things out — certainly not like Wyandotte County has,” Mullins said, referring to a new Nebraska Furniture Mart there.

The change in tax collections was intended to help the state take advantage of efforts by a multistate coalition — the Streamlined Sales Tax Project — to push for collection of sales tax from Internet transactions. But businesses have complained they were not given enough time or information about the change, prompting officials to announce relaxed enforcement.

In Barber County, though, Gehlen is enjoying the fresh stream of revenue.

“Money,” she said, “is always good news.”