Sales tax revenues continue decline

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced today he will send cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $619.7 million in local sales tax allocations for March, 5.8 percent more than in March 2016. These allocations are based on sales made in January by businesses that report tax monthly.

“The cities of Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Austin saw noticeable increases in sales tax allocations,” Hegar said. “The cities of McAllen and Sugar Land saw noticeable decreases.”

There may have been increases in Texas' larger cities, but there were none for Gonzales County.

Gonzales County received an allocation this month of $138,241.45. This is 6.22 percent increase over the allocation of 130,145.43 received in March of 2016. The year-to-date (YTD) sales tax revenue total for Gonzales County is $371,634.03. This is an 11.83 percent decrease from the YTD total of 421,495.94 in March of 2016.

Gonzales County is no stranger to decrease. Allocations have been decreasing for three years. In March of 2014 the county received 452,115.77 for a March YTD total of $1,034,147.71. In 2015 the March allocation of $262,674.66 was 41.9 percent less than the March 2014 allocation of $452,115.77. The YTD for March of 2015 was 43.02 percent less than the prior year.

The March allocation decrease from 2014 to 2017 is 69.42 percent. The March YTD decrease from 2014 to 2017 is 63.09 percent.

The City of Gonzales received a March sales tax revenue allocation of $154,292.14. This allocation is a 9.80 percent decrease from the March 2016 allocation of $171,057.75. The city's March 2017 YTD is $543,493.37. The March 2016 YTD was $566,228.64. The decrease from 2016 to 2017 is 4.01 percent.

Unlike Gonzales County's steady decreases, The City of Gonzales saw increases from March 2014 to March of 2015. In 2014 the city's March disbursement was $210,651.41. In that same year the city's March YTD totaled $651,816.12. The March Allocation for 2015 was $264,565.72. In March of 2015 the YTD total was $757,233.71. The rate of increase for the March allocation from 2014 to 2015 was 15.67 percent. The rate of increase for the YTD total that same year was 16.17 percent.

The cities of Nixon, Smiley and Waelder also saw decreases from March of 2016 to March of 2107.

Nixon received an allocation this month of $22,744.42 for a YTD of $68,749.54. These new numbers are down from the $28,870.67 received last March when the YTD was $79,148.19.

Smiley received a March disbursement of $1,792.83 for a YTD of $5,572.71. The recent allocation is down from the March numbers last year when the city received $2,779.73 and had a March YTD of $6,205.33.

Waelder received an allocation this month of $3,366, just $110.95 less than last year's disbursement of $3,477.79. Waelder's YTD this month is $10,352.05, down from the YTD of $12,695.59 in this same period last year.