Sales tax collections don’t show recovery yet

August sales and use tax collections in St. Mary Parish continued a 22-month decline in revenues, but dropped less than July’s collections, when receipts showed the sharpest monthly drop of 2016, according to parish sales tax reports.
Parish Sales and Use Tax Director Jeff LaGrange said there’s no indication from sales tax collections that there is any economic recovery going on in the parish. Conversations LaGrange had with those connected to local industry has confirmed that statistic, he said. Sales tax collections in August are from purchases made in July.
Sales and use tax collections in August totaled $2.82 million, a 6.6 percent drop, from the $3.02 million collected in the same month of 2015. Officials collected $139,768 in August as a result of financial audits, while no money was collected from audits in August 2015.
Monthly St. Mary Parish sales and use tax collections have been below the same month of the previous year for 22 straight months, dating back to November 2014. Parish officials have attributed the continuous decline in collections to the economic downturn and low price of oil.
Sales tax revenues in August showed the second-lowest decline in total monthly collections this year, next to June collections, which fell just 5 percent compared to June 2015. Still, excluding collections made due to audits, August revenues dropped 11.3 percent.
April collections had the smallest drop, excluding collections from audits, at 2.6 percent from the prior April.
Hotel sales taxes dropped more steeply in August than overall collections. The parish’s hotel tax accumulated $47,655, a 25.2 percent dip from the $63,712 collected in August 2015.
However, total August collections weren’t as bad as July’s collections, which saw the largest monthly decline in 2016. July collections totaled $2.75 million, a 21.7 percent decrease from the $3.51 million collected in July 2015. In July, officials collected $8,777 as a result of financial audits compared to the $139,057 collected from audits in July 2015, according to the latest report.
Morgan City’s sales tax for roads garnered $59,306 in August, bringing the year-to-date total collected for roadwork to $588,246.
Parish Economic Development Director Frank Fink said in August that the parish was close to reaching the bottom in terms of layoffs due to the downturn, explaining that much of the excess in the labor force had been removed.
Unemployment in St. Mary Parish dropped slightly in July to 9.8 percent, from June’s 10.1 percent unemployment. But July unemployment was still well above the 7.8 percent unemployment the parish had in July 2015, according to the state Workforce Commission.
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.
First quarter collections totaled $9.45 million, a decrease of 13 percent compared to the $10.86 million collected in 2015’s first quarter.
The following occupational licenses were filed in August: town of Berwick, $4,510; St. Mary Parish, $1,344; city of Morgan City, $433; city of Franklin, $139; city of Patterson, $100; and town of Baldwin, $25.