Howardwick sales tax drops 98 percent

The City of Howardwick stood out among cities in Donley County when Texas Comptroller Susan Combs announced the August sales tax allocations last Friday.

The city’s rebate was just $38.07, a sharp decline of more than 98 percent from the $2,055.23 Howardwick received for the same period in 2008.
Comptroller spokesman R.J. DeSilva said the information was accurate and that Howardwick is receiving just $38.07 this month.

“But that is not truly reflective of sales taxes collected in that city,” DeSilva said. “It appears an adjustment has been made from earlier tax allocations, but I’m not sure what might have caused that.”

DeSilva said it’s possible that earlier allocations were too high for some reason.

Howardwick City Secretary Dianna Knight said Tuesday that she had been contacted by the comptroller’s office and was told that the low allocation could be due to a taxpayer paying too much in preceding months or possibly a taxpayer who missed the filing deadline for the last period.

Last month, the comptroller’s office reported that Howardwick was running 10.56 percent ahead for its year-to-date sales tax revenue. This month’s data has pulled that figure into the negative with a drop of 10.22 percent

The year-to-date total for Howardwick, however, has increased to $10,748.41, which is up $2,055.23 from $8,693.18 last month.

The City of Clarendon, meanwhile, posted a gain of 4.39 percent with an August allocation of $23,622.95 compared to $22,628.61 for the same month one year ago. That puts the city’s year-to-date figure at nearly dead even with growth of only 0.07 percent.

Hedley’s rebate fell 3.15 percent to $262.71, and the year-to-date figure was pulled down 12.66 percent to $4,679.87.

Statewide, Combs’ office statewide collected $1.75 billion in sales tax in August, down 12.5 percent compared to a year ago.

“Monthly sales tax collections continue to decline as most major sectors of the economy, including oil and gas, construction and retail trade, continue to struggle,” Combs said.

Local governments will receive $428.3 million in monthly sales tax allocations on Monday, a 12.9 percent decrease compared to a year ago. So far this calendar year, local sales tax allocations are down 3.3 percent compared to the same period in 2008.

Combs will send monthly sales tax allocations of $290.3 million to Texas cities, down 12.2 percent compared to last year.

The sales tax figures represent sales that occurred in July.