City sales tax figure tumbles

Clarendon’s monthly sales tax revenue plummeted when Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar distributed June allocations last week.

The city’s collection fell 12.04 percent to $30,692.02 compared to $34,897.06 for the same period one year ago.

The June figure brings Clarendon’s calendar year-to-date figure to $188,702.75, a drop of 2.78 percent.

June’s allocation was disappointing, especially after Clarendon’s May allocation was up more than 15 percent following several months of poor performance.

The current allocation is based on sales made in April by businesses that report tax monthly.

Statewide local sales taxes were down 1.8 percent at $618 million.

Hedley’s allocation was up from $278.86 one year ago to $291.99 this month, bringing that city up 16.68 percent for the year-to-date at $3,845.65.

Howardwick was up 1.08 percent at $922.10 but slightly behind for the year-to-date at $6,335.97, down 0.88 percent.

For the same period, Memphis dropped 10.27 percent to $23,390.31, Wellington rose 3.24 percent to $18,969.60, Clause was up 55.69 percent to $11,377.94, and Childress was down 7.15 percent to $82,751.42.

“Energy-centric cities such as Midland, Odessa and Corpus Christi continued to see decreases in sales tax allocations,” Hegar said. “Meanwhile, other areas of the state helped offset those losses as Austin, El Paso and Irving saw moderate increases in allocations.”

Larger area cities also saw mixed returns this month. Amarillo was up 1.45 percent, but Canyon was down 2.71 percent, Pampa was off 16.31 percent, and Plainview was down 8.49 percent.