Clark County’s second consecutive double-digit increase in sales tax revenue suggests to Clark County Administrator Nathan Kennedy that shoppers are avoiding high gas prices by making their purchases closer to home.

Clark County’s sales tax revenue — based on purchases made at Clark County businesses in May and disbursed by the state to the county in August — jumped 10.7 percent to more than $1.8 million, compared to the same period a year earlier. Last month, Clark County also recorded a double-digit increase of 18.9 percent over the same month in 2011, to nearly $1.8 million, according to Ohio Department of Taxation records.

Sales tax collections are considered a barometer of the health of the retail sector, which accounts for about two-thirds of the U.S. economy. Sales tax collections distributed by the state in August rose in five counties in west central and southwest Ohio, and registered the 27th consecutive month of year-over-year gains in Greene and Montgomery counties.

Champaign County’s sales tax collections jumped 26 percent this month to $436,000. Greene County sales tax collections rose 1.7 percent to $1.8 million, Miami County saw revenues increase by 1.6 percent to $1.2 million, and Montgomery County sales tax revenues rose $269,000 from a year earlier to $5.6 million, a 5.1 percent increase.

Clark County’s general fund is dependent largely on sales tax revenues, and gains in those revenues have offset losses from cuts in the state’s Local Government Fund and in public-defender reimbursements, Kennedy said.

Higher overall prices and pent-up demand for large-ticket items that families have held off replacing are likely factors in the jump in sales tax collections, Kennedy said. Clark County’s sharp gain combined with the comparatively small increase in sales tax revenues in Greene County — home of two regional shopping malls that attract shoppers from surrounding counties — suggests Clark County residents are buying merchandise from Clark County businesses rather than traveling longer distances to shop in the Dayton or Columbus areas, the county administrator said.

Kennedy said his county’s second consecutive double-digit increase came as a bit of a surprise.

“We knew it was rising, but we were not expecting this magnitude,” Kennedy said.