Sales tax decline slows in January

January’s St. Mary Parish sales and use tax collections continued the 15-month streak of declining revenues, but showed the smallest monthly decrease since March 2015, according to the latest report.
“January collections of December activity encompass occasional, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual filers, which may attribute to the smaller decrease,” Parish Sales and Use Tax Director Jeff LaGrange said in an email. Additionally, the parish collected a “substantial one-time use tax remittance” in January.
The parish collected a total of $4.21 million in sales and use taxes during January, an 11.2 percent decrease from the $4.75 million collected in January 2015. Excluding delinquent collections made as a result of financial audits, sales tax revenues dropped just 4.5 percent from January 2015.
St. Mary Parish collected $112,096 from audits in January, down from the $454,084 gathered in January 2015.
During the 15-month stretch of declines, the smallest decline was in March, when total collections dropped 1.6 percent.
In November 2015, parish sales tax collections decreased 31.6 percent from November 2014, the sharpest drop in the 15-month streak of declining revenues.
January’s hotel sales tax revenues declined by 12.7 percent, going from $45,848 in January 2015 to $40,043 this past month.
The 2015 total parish sales tax collections reflected the downturn in the local economy with collections dropping 16 percent compared to 2014.
In 2015, sales and use tax collections declined about $7.4 million compared to 2014, dropping from $46.2 million in 2014 to $38.8 million.
Hotel sales tax revenues declined from $706,752 to $668,487 from 2014 to 2015, a 5.4 percent dip.
December 2015 sales tax revenues totaled $2.77 mil-lion compared to $3.69 mil-lion collected in December 2014, a 24.8 percent drop.
LaGrange said in December that there was no end in sight for the “downward spiral” in sales tax collections. He expected that both government and business budgets would be cut drastically in the upcoming months until oil prices begin to rise and stabilize.
In January, Morgan City collected $131,341 for its 0.3 percent road royalty sales tax. The city finished 2015 with $876,200 collected for road work after getting $68,257 on the tax in December 2015.
The following occupational licenses were filed in January: city of Morgan City, $106,761; St. Mary Parish, $61,012; city of Franklin, $23,190; town of Berwick, $13,097; and town of Bald-win, $11,982.