City’s June sales tax rebate leaps up almost 5.5 percent

The city of Graham had, for the first time in many months, a rise in sales taxes returned to the city, compared with the same month last year.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar will send cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $640 million in local sales tax allocations for June, 3.6 percent more than in June 2016. These allocations are based on sales made in April by businesses that report tax monthly.

“The cities of Round Rock, Frisco, San Antonio, Midland and Odessa saw noticeable increases in sales tax allocations,” Hegar said. “The cities of Houston and Austin saw small decreases.”

Sales tax rebates in Texas are consistent with a pattern that began with last year’s decline in the oil and gas industry and has affected counties statewide, including Young County and particularly, Graham. It should be noted that sales taxes do not make up the bulk of a city’s revenues.

Graham’s rebate this month from its 1.5 percent rate was $163,413.85, up 5.44 percent from the $154,977.80 rebate received during the same month last year. So far this year, the city’s rebates are down 6.38 percent, to $1,073,483.99, compared to $1,146,717.75 received at this time last year.

Olney’s rebate this month from its 1.5 percent rate was down 14.92 percent from a year ago, to $22,658.25, compared to the $26,633.97 received during the same month last year. So far this year, Olney has received $161,982.87, up 5.43 percent from the $153,626.42 received in the same period in 2016.

Newcastle is still showing a decent year-to-date increase, in part due its move to collect a higher sales tax rate, which began April 1, 2016 (1.5 percent, up from 1 percent). But this month’s collections dropped by 30.78 percent, to $4,641.79, compared to the $6,705.90 collected during the same month last year. Year-to-date, Newcastle has received $32,455.79, up 15.24 percent from the $28,163.16 total by this time in 2016.

Young County’s .5 percent sales tax yielded $76,553.82 this month, up 4.18 percent from the $73,476.74 received during the same month last year. Year-to-date, the county has received $488,788.74, down 3.46 percent from the $506,317.17 collected at the same point in 2016.