Sales taxes down again after snapping streak

A month after the first monthly increase in St. Mary Parish Sales and Use tax collections in nearly two years, collections dropped over 11 percent in October compared to October 2015, according to the latest monthly report.
Each month’s collections are sales taxes paid on the previous month’s purchases.
“September’s numbers were August numbers, which are back-to-school numbers,” Parish Economic Development Director Frank Fink said.
“And so October, now people are all back to school. They’re probably waiting for the sales to hit for Christmas,” Fink said.
“You could see an up-tick in November, December for the Christ-mas sales, but you can’t guarantee it because of the situation. We’re still possibly looking at some more layoffs if things continue the way they are.”
The sales and use tax department collected about $2.9 million in October, down 11.7 percent from the $3.28 million collected in the same month of the prior year and a 15.4 percent drop excluding collections from audits.
September’s collections totaled $3.14 million, up 7 percent from the $2.93 million collected in September 2015. A one-time bankruptcy payment and increased collections due to financial audits of companies contributed to the increase, Parish Sales and Use Tax Director Jeff LaGrange said.
Excluding collections from audits, September collections decreased by 1 percent compared to September 2015.
That slight jump in September was the first monthly increase in parish sales tax collections since November 2014.
Fink hopes the “Shop St. Mary” campaign this holiday season will add to the parish’s sales tax collections. But Fink expects people to be “much more cautious with spending this shop-ping season” due to the uncertainty with the economy, he said.
Officials collected $156,497 from financial audits in October, rising from the $43,763 collected in October 2015.
The parish hotel sales tax brought in $45,442, a 22.3 percent drop from the $58,443 collected in October 2015.
In October, Morgan City’s 0.3 percent road royalty sales tax accumulated a net distribution of $59,463 to bring the 10-month year-to-date total collected for road work to $682,283.
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 mil-lion, a decrease of 13 percent compared to the $10.86 million collected in 2015’s first quarter. Collections dipped 9.1 percent without audits.
The following occupational licenses were issued in October: city of Morgan City, $2,656; city of Patterson, $335; city of Franklin, $320; St. Mary Parish, $229; town of Berwick, $93; and town of Baldwin, $15.