Five cities finish ahead of 2014 sales tax figures
Sales tax revenue incomes for the month of December may not have been kind for most of Van Zandt County, but the late slide was not enough to derail what proved to be a strong year of gains for five out of six cities.
The city of Van lifted the heaviest load among county cities in the month of December according to information released by the office of Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar. Van sales tax revenues climbed a county best $20,638.09 when comparing monthly figures for December 2015 with those posted in December 2014.
Edom, which lagged behind its previous year’s pace throughout much of the early part of the year, continued its renaissance during the month of December by collecting $1,266.68, up $211.65 over the $1,055.03 collected for the same month last year.
On the other end of the spectrum, the cities of Wills Point, Grand Saline, Canton and Edgewood all posted negative dollar changes for the month.
Wills Point, which received a payment of $86,038.45 in December 2014, collected $74,601.18 to close out this year.
For the second consecutive month, Grand Saline also saw a significant drop in its sales tax revenues. In November, Grand Saline received $54,158.10, down 6.86 percent or $3,991.61 from the $58,149.71 received in the same calendar month in 2014. The trend carried over into December with Grand Saline receiving $44,020.33 – down 8.79 percent or $4,244.88 – from the $48,265.88 received last year.
Canton and Edgewood each came closest among county cities to being on the list of gainers, falling behind $1,707.68 and $1,360.66, respectively.
Spearheaded by the gains made by Van and Edom, county cities were up a combined $2,099.25 over last year’s figures for the month.
For the year, Canton (up $90,887.26 in year-to-date figures,) Grand Saline (up $86,977.60 in year-to-date figures,) Wills Point (up $24,206.48 in year-to-date figures,) Edgewood (up $20,444.29 in year-to-date figures) and Edom (up $159.91 in year-to-date figures) all finish 2015 ahead of their 2014 pace.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, a big sales tax revenue figure for the month of December was not enough to push Van into the black when comparing year-to-date totals. Van collected $796,437.06 in 2015, down $13,629.00 from the $810,066.06 received in 2014.
As a whole, the six county cities finish 2015 a combined $209,046.54 (or 3.56 percent) ahead of their 2014 pace.
Comptroller Glenn Hegar said that his office would send, “cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $626.3 million in local sales tax allocations for December, 3 percent less than in December 2014. These allocations are based on sales made in October by businesses that report tax monthly.”
He added “sales tax revenue for the state in November was $2.58 billion, down 3.3 percent compared to November 2014. Sales tax revenue declined again due to reduced spending in oil and gas-related sectors. Remittances from other sectors, including construction, restaurants and retail trade, continued to grow. The net decrease in sales tax receipts is in line with the October Certification Revenue Estimate.”
