Progress staff reports
news@jacksonvilleprogress.com
Though the year’s sales tax allocations to date are still slightly above last year’s numbers, Cherokee County continues to lag from month to month. Up to $269,894.38 was distributed to local governments in December, down 10.6 percent from last year’s $301,917.01.
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said the state collected $1.70 billion in sales tax in November, down 14.4 percent compared to November 2008.
“Sales tax collections, declining since February 2009, continued to be weak in November,” Combs said. “Compared to a year ago, sales tax collections were down across all major sectors of the Texas economy, including oil and natural gas production, construction, manufacturing and retail trade.”
The comptroller sent cities, counties, special purpose districts and transit systems $417.1 million in December sales tax allocations, down 14.6 percent compared to last December. The final sales tax allocation of 2009 brings local sales tax revenue for the year to $5.6 billion, 5.1 percent less than in 2008.
About $279.6 million in allocations was sent to Texas cities in December, down 14.9 percent compared to December 2008. Counties’ December sales tax allocations totaled $24.6 million, down 20.2 percent compared to December 2008. The next local sales tax allocation will be made Jan. 8.
According to state records, Jacksonville received $205,489.81 for the month, a decrease of 14.09 percent over last December’s $239,205.15. It’s not quite enough to put the city under for the year. The total currently stands at $3,097,218.02 versus last year’s $3,020,391.55.
Rusk, by contrast, has shown a marked improvement. It received $43,895.28, a 2.75 increase over last year’s $42,717.51. At $613,782.85 over last year’s to date value of $546,091.92, Rusk is one of the few cities to show an increase in both the monthly allocation figures and the year-to-date figures.
New Summerfield, at $1,270.29 against $1,171.80, also displayed an increase since last year.
However, the city’s to-date allocations are down 5.72 percent from $17,451.59.
Alto is the only city alongside Rusk in Cherokee County to show increases in both the monthly allocations, a 9.3 percent increase from $7,283.11, and to-date allocations, a 4.14 percent increase from $88,075.36.
Cuney lost 1.26 percent in December from last year’s December, dropping from $9,322.95 to $9,204.743.
However, it remains the city with the largest to-date increase in the county at $138,169.79 against $102,124.92.
Values were taken from the Texas State Comptroller’s Web site at www.window.state.tx.us/.
