Covington County continues to buck the national trend of a slow economy as local sale tax collections show a steady growth in revenue.

In Andalusia, year-to-date collections are up 4 percent, while county collections are up nearly 6 percent.

Andalusia city clerk John Thompson said in July, which represents June sales, the city collected $408,000 – a $36,000 increase from 2010.

Thompson credits a “solid retail environment” for both the increase in collections, as well as the difference between the local and national economies.

“I think it’s because a solid retail environment has been built in Covington County,” he said. “No only are our people staying at home to shop, but people are also coming to Andalusia to shop. That’s good on many different fronts – one, it’s good for jobs and two, it’s good for business.

“It’s a positive for everyone,” he said.

Covington County collected $637,000, which was a more than $28,000 increase from 2010.

“That brings our year-to-date total to a little more than $6.4 million, and this time last year, we were just over $6 million in collections,” said assistant county administrator Pam Steele.

The trend continued in Florala, where city officials reported a 6.5 percent increase in its year-to-date collections at the end of July; however, in Opp, collections were slightly lower for July at $156,400 – a nearly $13,000 decrease from 2010 – which brought the year-to-date total to nearly $1.6 million. City clerk Connie Smith said that total slightly more than 1 percent less than collections from this time last year.