Published: July 13, 2009 09:21 pm      

Economy catching up to OC

Following a decline in sales tax payments to most Orange County communities in June, sales tax allocation payments were up for most communities in July.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs announced Friday the state collected $1.57 billion in sales tax revenue in June, down 11.2 percent compared to June 2008. As a whole, Orange County remains 29.67 percent ahead of 2008 to date.

State sales tax collections in June and local sales tax allocations in July represent sales that occurred in May.

The City of Orange received more than $300,000 from the state, which is more than $41,000 ahead of this same time period in 2008. Despite a sluggish national economy and rising local unemployment, the city remains 42 percent ahead of this time last year.

“The recent sales tax allocation increase for Orange may be attributed to residents and contractors finalizing residential and commercial repairs,” said Jay Trahan, City of Orange Director of Economic Development. “Orange residents seem to be shopping locally to meet their needs and are supporting the local retail business sector. The monthly sales tax payments, percentage wise, may be decreasing, but Orange is still experiencing an increase and that is a positive compared to other areas of the state and country.”

After seeing a sharp increase in June, the City of West Orange was received 7 percent less money in sales tax payments from the state this month than in 2008, but remains more than 20 percent ahead of 2008 to date.

All other Orange County communities remain ahead for the month when compared to the same time period in 2008. Pine Forest’s net payment of $3,224.37 was an increase of 60.82 percent over this time last year. The small community of approximately 700 people is more than 51 percent ahead of sales set in 2008 to date.

Bridge City received $107,258.97 from the state comptroller this month, an increase of 13 percent over June 2008.

Even with continued net gains locally in sales tax payments from the state, the economy is finally taking its toll as payments begin to slowly decrease from the start of 2009.

“The economy is having an effect and impact on us,” said Bobby Fillyaw, Director of the Orange County Economic Development Corporation. “We’ve seen some layoffs at area plants, but, even with the slowdown in our economy, we are still outpacing the national economy.”

Combs sent July sales tax allocations of $284.3 million to Texas cities, down 8.8 percent compared to July 2008. So far this calendar year, city sales tax allocations are down 1.6 percent compared to the same time period last year. Texas counties received sales tax payments of $26 million, down 10 percent compared to last July. So far this year, sales tax allocations to counties are up 0.9 percent compared to this point in 2008.

“The oil and gas, construction and retail trade sectors showed continued weakness, resulting in a sharp decrease in sales tax collections in June,” Combs said. “Contributing to the decrease was not only the weakness in these three sectors, but also the strong level of collections received from them in June 2008.”

Combs sent July sales tax allocations totaling $426.7 million to cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts, down 8.8 percent compared to July 2008.

Combs sent $16.6 million to 151 special purpose taxing districts, down 5.5 percent compared to last July.

Ten local transit systems received $99.6 million in sales tax allocations, down 8.9 percent compared to a year ago.



Tommy Mann Jr. is a reporter for The Orange Leader. He can be reached at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2619 or tmann@orangeleader.com