Graham, Young County see drop in sales in December

Graham, Young County see drop in sales in December News Staff Tue, 02/13/2024 - 12:47 pm

• (THE GRAHAM LEADER | ARCHIVE PHOTO) The city of Graham and Young County saw a 49.98% and 37.22% drop in sales tax allocations for sales in December 2023 compared with the same month as last year, respectively.

Thomas Wallner editor@grahamleader.com

The city of Graham and Young County saw one of largest drops in recent years for sales tax allocations for sales in December 2023 by businesses that report sales taxes monthly, by quarterly filers and by businesses which report annually.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced Wednesday, Feb. 7, that the state will be sending cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $1.3 billion in local sales tax allocations this month, 1.6% more than in February 2023.

Local sales allocations

Graham

Graham’s rebate this month from their 1.5% rate is $181,455.55, down 49.98% compared to the $362,791.32 rebate received during the same month last year. The city’s rebates are down 25.01%, or $478,987.90 compared to $638,807.43 received at this time last year.

Olney

Olney’s rebate this month from their 1.5% rate is down 2.72% to $48,317.82, compared to the $49,671.47 received during the same month last year. The city’s rebates are up 1.33%, or $88,919.59, compared to $87,750.29 received at this time last year.

Newcastle

Newcastle is showing an increase from their 1.5% sales tax rate of 2.11% to $7,531.55, compared to the $7,375.52  collected during the same month last year. The city’s rebates are up 12.28%, or $15,800.78, compared to $14,071.55 received at this time last year.

Young County

Young County’s 0.5% sales tax yielded $104,593.94 this month, down 37.22% from the $166,622.93 received during the same month last year. The county’s rebates are down 19.54%, or $248,126.81, compared to $308,397.09 received at this time last year.

January sales taxes

Hegar announced Thursday, Feb. 1 that state sales tax revenue totaled $4.02 billion in January, 2% less than in January 2023. The majority of January sales tax revenue is based on sales made in December and remitted to the agency in January.

The comptroller stated that for a second time since the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted, monthly state sales tax collections fell compared with the year prior.

“A contributing factor was higher-than-normal refund activity, but several sectors that have been trending downwards in recent months continued to show weakness in January,” Hegar said.

“Remittances from the wholesale trade sector were down for the ninth time in 10 months, and receipts from manufacturing were down for the fourth time in five months. Receipts from the oil and gas mining sector were down for the second month in a row. In the major sectors driven primarily by business spending, remittances from the construction sector were the lone positive standout, increasing by mid-single digits compared with a year ago.”

The comptroller said the receipts from the consumer-driven retail sector were slightly above the previous year, but most retail were down.

“Receipts from electronics and appliance stores were down the most, followed by declines from clothing and apparel stores. Remittances from home improvement centers and furniture and home goods stores continued to decline significantly, as has been the case in recent months following the pandemic-spurred boom in those categories. Receipts from general merchandisers also fell. Receipts from online merchants were the bright spot among the large retail trade subsectors, with remittances coming in strongly over January 2023 totals,” Hegar said.
“Receipts from restaurants grew in the mid-single digits and slightly higher than the inflation rate for food away from home.”

Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in January 2024 was up 1.6% compared with last year.

The state collected $618 million from motor vehicle sales and rental taxes, up 9% from January 2023. Texas collected $307 million from motor fuel taxes, up 3% from January 2023. The state collected $500 million from oil production taxes, up 3% from January 2023. The state collected $188 million from natural gas production taxes, down 41% from January 2023.

Texas collected $25 million from hotel occupancy taxes, down 54% from January 2023. The state also collected $154 million from alcoholic beverage taxes, down 1% from January 2023.

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