Sales taxes continue to fall

Representatives of local governments got no good news on sales taxes Monday at the St. Mary Parish Council of Governments quarterly meeting in Franklin.
Tony Fuhrer, Sales & Use Tax Department officer, told the unofficial organization of local governmental bodies that first-quarter 4.3 percent sales tax collections were down $1,408,678; second quarter collections, however, rang in down by $905,262. Total collections were, year-to-date, $2,314,940 in the red.
Without audits, total collections are $1,721,828 to the minus side.
That’s a dip of 11.24 percent in actual collections and 8.72 percent with audits.
By comparison, 2013 total collections without audit at the same time of the year were 21,481,010, and in 2014 22,476,093.
Occupational license tax collections by governments as of June 30 were:
—Berwick: $92,028.
—St. Mary Parish: $544,604
—Patterson: $75,695
—Baldwin: $33,316
—Franklin: $164,387
—Morgan City: $576,089