Local option sales tax collections up in December

January 22, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County’s share of local option sales tax collections for December 2021 were up by more than $22,000 compared to the same month in 2020 according to the Tennessee Department of Revenue. For the county and the four cities therein, combined collections were up by over $81,000

DeKalb County brought in $147,740 in December 2021 compared to $125,299 for December 2020.

Three of the four cities within DeKalb County also hauled in more local option sales tax revenue. Alexandria was the exception.

The comparisons between the two months for each municipality are as follows:
Smithville: $360,692 (December 2021), $305,442 (December 2020)
Alexandria: $29, 448 (December 2021), $30,151 (December 2020)
Dowelltown: $3,386 (December 2021), $2,825 (December 2020)
Liberty: $11,335 (December 2021), $7,181 (December 2020)

NET COLLECTIONS (LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX): $552,603 (December 2021), $470,900 (December 2020)
December sales tax collections reflect previous month activity.

January 22, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The number of active COVID cases in DeKalb County has increased dramatically within the last three weeks.

At last report this week the Tennessee Department of Health recorded 417 active cases of COVID in DeKalb County, a sharp increase from 152 cases on Tuesday, January 4. Ninety with COVID have died in DeKalb County since the pandemic began in March 2020, up by 3 since January 4.

Tennessee health officials reported that they will no longer provide daily COVID-19 data releases. Weekly data will be reported by the TN Dept. of Health and can be found on their website https://www.tn.gov/content/tn/health/cedep/ncov/data.htm. TN Dept of Health reported that they would release information each Wednesday and the data will include the previous Sunday through Saturday period.

At last report 44.36% of the DeKalb County population had received at least one dose of COVID vaccine and 39.34% were fully vaccinated.

Over the seven-day period, January 9-15, DeKalb County had a daily case rate of 186.9 per 100,000 residents, up from 87.2 per 100,000 residents from the period of December 28 to January 3.

For the 14-day period, January 2-15, DeKalb County’s daily case rate was 152 per 100,000 residents, up from 55.8 per 100,000 residents for the period of December 21- January 3.

For the 14 days prior, December 19 to January 1, the daily case rate was 49.2 per 100,000 residents, up from 28.2 per 100,000 residents for the period of December 7-20.

From March 5, 2020, to January 15, 2022, DeKalb County has had a total of 4,989 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19

Over the last 7-day reporting period the average percent positive was 43.6%, up from 28.3 % in the report on January 4.

January 21, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The Tennessee General Assembly moved a step closer Thursday to giving DeKalb County a new State Senator.

The State Senate approved congressional and state Senate redistricting maps but delayed a vote on a state House map until next week. The state Senate and congressional maps passed the full Senate, 26-5. The House map will be discussed in the Senate on Wednesday.

After the maps pass both legislative bodies, they will head to Gov. Bill Lee. Democrats have vowed a court challenge.

According to the plan, DeKalb County would be moved from the 17th State Senatorial District, now represented by Mark Pody (R) of Lebanon, to the 16th District represented by Janice Bowling (R) of Tullahoma. In addition to DeKalb County, the 16th District would include the counties of Warren, Grundy, Coffee, Franklin, and Lincoln. Senator Bowling currently represents Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Sequatchie, Van Buren, and Warren Counties.

The proposed redistricting plan calls for Senator Pody’s 17th District to include all of Wilson County and extend into Davidson to include portions of Donelson and Hermitage, along with areas near the Nashville International Airport and Percy Priest Lake. Pody currently serves Cannon, Clay, Macon, Smith, and Wilson counties in addition to DeKalb.

Senator Pody told WJLE Thursday he had hoped to hold onto DeKalb County.

“I have six counties right now in the 17th district and it looks like they will take five of them away. The 17th district will include Wilson County and a portion of Davidson County. I tried my best to negotiate and at least hold onto Cannon, DeKalb, and Smith County. I would have rather kept my rural counties rather than pick up Davidson County, but Wilson and Davidson County grew so fast in population over the last 10 years that the numbers for redistricting did not work as I would have liked,” said Senator Pody.

If the plan is adopted by both the State Senate and State House, is signed by the Governor, and withstands a court challenge, Senator Pody said it would take effect after the November election.

Senator Pody said although he may no longer represent DeKalb County after November, he would continue to help anyone here anyway he could, but that DeKalb County would be well represented by Senator Bowling.

“I have known Senator Bowling for a long time. She and I have worked together on a lot of bills. In fact, if you looked at our voting record, we probably vote 98% of the time exactly the same way. I think she will be very good for the county. She is looking forward to coming into DeKalb County and has already been working with me to learn all the issues related to the county and obtain the local demographics so she can hit the ground running,” said Senator Pody.

Unlike Senator Pody, Senator Bowling is not up for re-election in 2022.

Much of the Senate Democratic objection to the maps remained the three-way split of Nashville in the congressional map. Currently one Democratic U.S. representative (Jim Cooper, 5th Congressional) represents Nashville.

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