Parish sales taxes down $3.5M in 2016, but officials are optimistic for 2017

St. Mary Parish’s sales and use tax collections dropped by over $3.5 million in 2016, but parish officials are optimistic the local economy will gradually improve in 2017.
The parish collected $35.24 million in sales and use taxes in 2016, about a 9 percent drop from the $38.83 collected in 2015, according to the December report.
But parish officials say 2017 could be brighter.
“There seems to be some optimism in the economic outlook for 2017,” Parish Sales and Use Tax Director Jeff LaGrange said in an email.
“I look for activity to slowly ramp up in the oilfield this year and we should start to see some recovery from the last three years (of) decline,” LaGrange said.
Officials collected $969,653 as a result of financial audits in 2016 compared to the $1.14 million gathered in 2015.
The parish’s hotel sales tax fared much worse in 2016, declining slightly over 24 percent with $506,775 collected in 2016, and $668,487 collected in 2015.
In 2015, sales and use the decline in sales tax collections were significantly steeper, about a 16 percent decrease compared to 2014, decreasing by $7.4 million from the $46.2 million collected in 2014.
In September, the parish snapped a 22-month streak of continuously declining monthly collections compared to the same month of the prior year with a 7 percent increase that month, and 1 percent increase excluding collections from audits.
Parish Economic Development Director Frank Fink said industry forecasters are predicting the price of oil will reach $60 to $65 per barrel by the end of 2017 because the world economy is expected to follow the U.S. economy’s pickup in activity, thus increasing demand for oil.
“We’re getting more positive vibes from industry now,” Fink said.
However, parish unemployment is still down significantly from last year and two years ago, Fink said. Parish unemployment dropped from 9.2 percent to 8.5 percent from October to November. September unemployment was 10.1 percent.
The part of the decreasing unemployment rate could be that people have stopped looking for work and dropped out of the labor force, Fink said. The labor force went from 22,212 in October to 22,012 in November.
Since 2015, the parish labor force has plummeted by about 2,000 people.
St. Mary lost a few jobs in November, going from 20,177 residents employed in October to 20,143 employed the next month, he said.
August statistics showed 20,440 people were employed in St. Mary,
Employment “looks like it’s starting to level off,” and Fink sees that as a good sign, he said.
December’s collections totaled $2.69 million, a 2.9 percent decrease from the $2.77 million collected in December 2015.
Collections decreased 6.5 percent not counting audit collections.
Hotel tax collections dropped from $43,983 to $40,976, a 6.8 percent drop comparing December 2015 to December 2016.
In the fourth quarter of 2016, officials collected $8.27 million in sales taxes, a 5.9 percent drop from the $8.78 million collected during 2015’s fourth quarter. Excluding audits, collections decreased 8.6 percent.
Fourth quarter hotel tax collections declined 17.8 percent, going from $155,874 in 2015 to $128,180 in 2016.
Third-quarter collections came in at $8.71 million, an 8 percent drop from $9.46 million collected in 2015’s third quarter. Collections dipped 10.2 percent excluding audits.
Second-quarter parish sales tax collections totaled $8.82 million, down 9.3 percent from the $9.72 million collected in 2015’s second quarter. Revenues dropped 8.4 percent excluding audits.
First-quarter collections totaled $9.45 million, a decrease of 13 percent compared to the $10.86 million collected in 2015’s first quarter. Collections dipped 9.1 percent without audits.
Morgan City’s road sales tax accumulated $61,441 in December, bring the 2016 total collected for road work to $829,918.
The following occupational licenses were filed in 2016: city of Morgan City, $601,438; St. Mary Parish, $579,303; city of Franklin, $166,297; town of Berwick, $111,344; city of Patterson, $76,604; and town of Baldwin, $33,466.