Wood County continues to see a sharp rise in retail sales, according to the first sales tax report of 2022 from the state comptroller’s office.

Six cities in the county that collect a tax on retail sales earned $482,025 in January compared to $425,105 in January 2021.

In addition, county government earned $228,236 for the month, up more than 25% from last year when $181,759 was received.

Only Alba reported a drop from January 2021, with income of $20,558, down 26% from year ago at $27,842.

Mineola saw a 22.6% increase from $187,386 a year ago to $229,759 this month.

Quitman’s sales tax rebate of $70,349 is up almost 14% from a year ago when $61,727 was received.

The city of Hawkins earned $34,763 in tax income for a jump of almost 20% from $29,025 a year ago.

Winnsboro sales tax income rose 6.7% to $118,045 from $110,612 a year ago.

Yantis saw a slight increase to $8,549 for January, a rise of $38.

Combining the cities and the county, sales tax revenue for January totaled $710,261, up from $606,864 in January 2021.

The cities each collect a 1.5% sales tax on top of the state sales tax of 6.25%. Along with the half-percent collected by Wood County, the total sales tax rate inside cities is the maximum allowed of 8.25%.

The January rebates represent primarily taxes collected by businesses in November and reported to the state in December.