City’s May sales tax rebate down compared to May 2016

The city of Graham took a hit in sales taxes returned to the city, compared with the same month last year.

 Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced today he will send cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $787.8 million in local sales tax allocations for May, 2.6 percent more than in May 2016. These allocations are based on sales made in March by businesses that report tax monthly, and sales made in January, February and March by quarterly filers.

“The cities of Irving, Round Rock, Dallas, San Antonio and Odessa saw noticeable increases in sales tax allocations,” Hegar said. “The cities of McAllen and Sugar Land saw noticeable decreases.”

Sales tax decreases 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. It should be noted 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 $204,237.52, down 13.61 percent from the $236,424.80 rebate received during the same month last year. So far this year, the city’s rebates are down 8.23 percent, to $910,070.14 compared to $991,739.95 received at this time last year.

Olney’s rebate this month from its 1.5 percent rate was up 15.18 percent from a year ago, to $33,130.23, compared to the $28,761.58 received during the same month last year.

So far this year, Olney has received $139,324.62, up 9.71 percent from the $126,992.45 received in the first four months of 2016.

Newcastle is still showing a heavy 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).

This month’s collections rose by 4.12 percent, to $4,682.37, compared to the $4,496.67 collected during the same month last year.
Year-to-date, Newcastle has received $27,814, up 29.62 percent from the $21,457.26 total by this time in 2016.

Young County’s .5 percent sales tax yielded $88,733.95 this month, down 11.35 percent from the $100,098.34 received during the same month last year.
Year-to-date, the county has received $412,234.92, down 4.76 percent from the $432,840.43 collected at the same point in 2016.