No relief in sight for parish sales tax slump

As St. Mary Parish approaches a year of continually declining sales and use tax collections, St. Mary Parish Sales and Use Tax Director Jeffery LaGrange doesn’t see any relief from those dropping revenues anytime in the near future, he said.
In August, the parish’s 4.3 percent sales and use tax collections decreased for the 10th consecutive time, according to the latest sales tax report.
Total sales collections came in at about $3.02 million in August, down 16.8 percent from the $3.63 million collected in August 2014. Excluding collections made as a result of financial audits, sales tax revenues decreased 15.9 percent compared to August 2014.
July’s sales and use tax total collections were down 15.9 percent from July 2014. In June, sales and use tax total collections plunged 20.3 percent compared to June 2014, the largest monthly decrease this year.
Also in August, hotel sales tax collections brought in $63,712 down about 4.2 percent from the $66,478 collected in August 2014. Morgan City’s 0.3 percent road royalty sales tax collected $68,697 in August, bringing the year-to-date total to $612,494.
In 2015, total first quarter collections decreased 7 percent, or 9.1 percent without collections due to audits, compared to the same period in 2014. During the second quarter of 2015, total collections dropped 16.6 percent, or 15.2 percent excluding audits, from 2014’s second quarter.
Due to the string of months of declining sales tax collections, parish officials are closely monitoring expenses and have budgeted projected sales tax revenues as conservatively as possible, Parish Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said.
Parish leaders take the average of prior year sales tax collections and then budget for slightly less than the average “just in case we get these types of issues,” Bo LaGrange said.
So far, parish officials haven’t had to cut funding to any areas within parish government, he said. The parish may have to make some cuts by the end of the year, though Bo LaGrange isn’t anticipating having to do so “based on the numbers we’re seeing,” he said.
Parish sales tax collections thus far in 2015 are close to what they were during 2010 to 2011, Bo LaGrange said.
A couple years after that decline, the parish had a stretch of increasing sales tax collections. Beginning in 2013, the parish went through 13 straight months where collections were above the same month of the prior year, Bo LaGrange said.
In April or May 2014, sales tax revenues started gradually declining, Bo LaGrange said.
Parish officials are beginning to construct the parish’s 2016 proposed budget taking all factors into consideration, Bo LaGrange said.
The following occupational licenses were filed in August: city of Morgan City, $3,625; St. Mary Parish, $1,338; city of Patterson, $127; town of Berwick, $25; city of Franklin, $25; and town of Baldwin, $0.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.