County, cities see increase in sales tax revenue for the year
Published 4:06 am Wednesday, December 19, 2018
By Dawn Burleigh
The Orange Leader
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced he will send cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $761 million in local sales tax allocations for December, 9.5 percent more than in December 2017. These allocations are based on sales made in October by businesses that report tax monthly.
Orange County saw a slight decrease in sales tax with this payment of $439,315 compared to $439,702 for the prior year payment for the same time. The difference was less than 1-percent less for this year’s payment. However, for the year to date, Orange County saw a significant difference of 16.27% more revenue with the 2018 year to date payments of $5,310,973 compared to the 2017 year to date payments of $4,567,567.
All cities in Orange County saw an increase for year to date payments, despite three cities: Bridge City, Orange, and West Orange, seeing a decrease in payments for this month compared to the same payment received in 2017.
Bridge City saw an increase of 22.92-percent overall for the year to date payments with a total of $1,821,219 in 2018 payments compared to $1,481,622 in 2017 year to date payments. This payment for the same month last year was down by 1.23 percent.
The City of Orange saw the largest decrease in payments this time compared to the same time last year with 9.65-percent less when comparing the 2018 monthly payment of $401,571 to the 2017 monthly payment of $444,474. Overall, for year to date, the city received $5,384,147 this year compared to $4,603,716 in 2017 year to date payments.
West Orange also received less this month compared to the same month in 2017 showing an 8.88-percent decrease in sales tax revenue.
Pine Forest showed the highest increase in sales tax revenue for both this month’s payment as well as year to date payments. This payment is higher by 50.47-percent compared to the same payment in 2017 which increased the year to date payments to 38.49-percent when you compare the 2018 year to date payment of $%140,115 to the 2017 year to date payments of $101,168.
