Sales tax revenues down across Valley, state

Monthly sales tax revenues are down across the state and the Rio Grande Valley, according to statistics released by the state comptroller’s office.

The comptroller’s July report reflects retail sales in May. Year-to-date numbers represent revenue since Jan 1.

Nearly every city in the lower Rio Grande Valley has seen a decrease in monthly tax revenues and fewer than half have made gains on year-to-date revenues compared with last year, according to the comptroller’s office.

In Brownville, the monthly sales tax revenues are down 5.29 percent, a $128,000 difference. Year-to-date sales tax dropped 6.82 percent, a loss of $1,346,320.

Los Fresnos had a 12.13 percent drop in sales tax in May, though year-to-date sales tax revenues are virtually unchanged.

While South Padre Island continues to rebuild from Hurricane Dolly, the hot summer weather continues to lure visitors. The city suffered only a 1.13 percent loss in sales in May, but overall the Island has seen a 14.3 percent increase since the first of the year.

In Harlingen, the monthly sales tax revenues are 8.78 percent lower while the city’s year-to-date revenue has increased by 1.76 percent compared with the same time periods in 2008.

Mercedes’ year-to-date sales receipts have increased 9.72 percent from 2008 and the city has sustained one of the lowest monthly losses in Hidalgo, Cameron and Willacy counties at 4.32 percent below July 2008.

Across Texas, monthly revenues are down by 8.83 percent compared with July of last year, while year-to-date revenues have fallen by 1.61 percent this year compared with 2008 statewide.

Mercedes City Manager Richard Garcia said the monthly fall has not hurt the city.

"We’re still fine," he said. "For the year, we’re still up. Our projections, for budgetary purposes, were zero percent growth for this year so anything above what we made last year is a net gain for us.

"We actually feared that the sales were going to be lower than this because of the swine flu pandemic," the city manager said. "You saw that, in a lot of public places, there were not a lot of people."

Meanwhile San Benito’s monthly revenues fell 11.44 percent while year-to-date tax income fell by 3.65 percent, according to the comptroller’s statistics.

One of the biggest sales tax setbacks among lower Valley cities was in La Feria, where year-to-date tax revenues have fallen 13.57 percent lower than receipts in 2008. The city’s monthly revenue has fallen by 9.26 percent.

City Finance Director Maria Chavero said that despite a fall in tax revenue the city is not planning budget changes at this time.

"When we budget we never budget extravagantly. We are very conservative," she said. "As far as the year-to-date budget in the city, we are OK. We are on target within one percent of the year-to-date sales."

Chavero said she expects tax numbers to pick up in August.

"Next month, hopefully, we will receive quarterly payments from merchants who pay quarterly and we’re hoping that will be a little bit higher," she said.

In Raymondville, year-to-date revenues are up by 4.97 percent while monthly numbers are down 8.14 percent from July 2008, a downturn that City Manager Eleazar Garcia says will have no immediate effect on the city.

He said the city is up in tax revenues by about 8 percent for the fiscal year beginning in October 2008 compared with that of October 2007.

"We’ll take a look at our next month coming into August and taking a look at our historical trend," Garcia said. "If (tax revenue) comes down again we’ll have to … maybe make adjustments at budget time for that.

"If that number goes back up again, we can discount this month as being just one of those months where it fluctuates," he said.