Published: February 20, 2009 10:07 pm      

Sales tax rebate figures ahead of 2008

For the second consecutive month, even with a national economic slowdown affecting the region, sales tax allocation payments were up from a year ago in every city in Orange County.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs reported collection of $1.92 billion in sales tax revenue in January, up 3.9 percent compared to January 2008.

“Growth in state sales tax collections remains modest,” Combs said. “While overall growth has continued for the first five months of fiscal 2009, collections from important sectors such as retail trade and construction have decreased.”

The city of Orange received the largest February sales tax rebate in Orange County of more than $537,000, which is approximately $205,000 more than this time last year. The city is almost 70 percent ahead for the year thus far.

“The sales tax increase for the City of Orange may be attributed to a business spike at local home remodeling centers, for items like lumber, sheetrock and flooring materials, for Hurricane Ike repairs,” said Jay Trahan, director of Economic Development for the City of Orange. “This increase will help offset the city’s out-of-pocket expenses for repairs that are not covered by FEMA and insurance.

“Also, with a 10 percent loss in water and sewer service revenue from those not making hurricane related repairs, the tax increase allotment will help in that area as well,” he continued. “In addition, the city expects next year’s budget, which begins October 1, to be challenging and we are trying to prepare accordingly.”

Communities such as Pine Forest, Rose City and Bridge City continue to show the large percentage increases too.

The January reopening of the Chevron truck stop in Rose City did not play a part in these figures, but the sales tax allocation payment for February skyrocketed to a 51.98 percent increase over 2008.

Pine Forest increase was even more dramatic at 92.73 percent, although the small community just north of Vidor only received a payment of $4,282. However, this is more than $2,000 over the same time period in 2008.

Vidor, Pinehurst and West Orange all showed considerable gains as well.

The city of Vidor experienced more than a 20 percent increase when compared to its rebate payment last year as the city received $275,0004.41 this month.

West Orange showed an increase of more than $27,000 from this month’s payment compared to the same time in 2008, while Pinehurst experienced a $21,000 increase.

Bobby Fillyaw, director of the Orange County Economic Development Corporation, said be believes the increase in the recent payments, which reflect sales tax receipts from December sales, may not be all directly related to sales from the Christmas shopping season.

“A little bit of it is definitely from Christmas, but a good part of it is also from home repairs because of hurricane damage still,” Fillyaw explained. “It is going to take a lot of people a lot of time to recover from this, and that should mean home repairs should continue for a while still.”

Fillyaw also said the national economy may be down right now, but, for Southeast Texas, the local outlook is not quite so bleak.

“We still have a lot of construction which will help keep our economy going,” Fillyaw continued. “And our unemployment is up, but it’s still not like it is in other parts of the country. Only time will tell, but I feel good about it. I think we will be better off compared to the rest of the country.”

As a whole, Orange County’s seven incorporated communities received more than $1.26 million in sales tax rebates this month, which is 38.82 percent more than this time in 2008. The whole county is also approximately 46 percent ahead of where it was this time last year in sales tax rebates.

Overall Comptroller Combs sent $665.5 million in local sales tax to Texas cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts, up 3.9 percent compared to sales tax distributions to local governments in February 2008.

January state sales tax collections and February’s local sales tax allocations represent sales made in December, but also include earlier sales by businesses that report sales tax to the comptroller on a quarterly or annual basis.

The comptroller sent $445.2 million in sales tax to Texas cities, up 2.5 percent compared to February 2008 payments. Texas counties received February sales tax payments of $41.4 million, up 9.9 percent compared to last February.

The 148 special purpose taxing districts around the state received $26.7 million in sales tax, up 24 percent compared to February 2008. Ten local transit systems received $152.1 million in February sales tax payments, up 3.3 percent compared to a year ago.