City sales tax takes a dive again

The city of Wimberley had its worst month of the year when it comes to allocations of sales tax from the state comptroller’s office.

The city receives one percent of sales tax collected within the city limits. In September, which represents sales made in July, the city received $70,558.62, down from $76,703.61 from the same month last year.

That represents an eight percent drop for the month, which is the largest percentage drop the city has seen since November of last year.

“The numbers we see for September go back two months, so in July,” Wimberley City Administrator Shawn Cox said. “It was a hot month with very little rain. Not a lot of activity water-wise. The river was starting to go down. That is when you are in the hot months when people aren’t willing to go out and walk around. I think that is the biggest contributor”

The city was also slightly down in August and July making it three straight months sales tax allocations have not met the standard of the previous year and five of the last seven months. The last time the city saw a drop in three straight months was in 2011.

In 2018, the city is down .48 percent in sales tax allocations, which represents about $3,500 total. The city has only received less money than the prior year from sales tax once in its entire 18-year history.

The city budgeted conservatively and should still bring in more sales tax allocations than budgeted. That will continue to be the case moving forward.

“For next year, I anticipated a one-percent growth,” Cox said. “I wasn’t looking at crazy growth... I’m comfortable with that going forward. If we start to see a patern where that is not going to be the case, we will redo our projections and adjust those accordingly.”

Woodcreek, and every other city in Hays County, has seen substantial growth in sales tax revenues in 2018.

Woodcreek received $4,260.52 in September, up 17.56 percent from the same month last year. On the year, Woodcreek is up 11.51 percent, which is about $4,000 total.

Here’s how the rest of the county’s municipalities fared:

• San Marcos received $2,934,693.26 in its September allocation, representing an increase of 24.17 percent compared to a year ago. So far this year, the city has received $26,810,856.88, and is ahead 30.37 percent compared to 2017.

• Buda: September rebate $562,473.55, up 17.70 percent from last year. Year-todate total is $5,081,754.18, up 13.46 percent.

• Dripping Springs: September rebate $198,718.25, up 13.33 percent. Year-todate total is $1,718,699.12, up 12.60 percent.

• Hays City: September rebate $563.25, up 5.54 percent. Year-to date total is $12,949.34, up 40.47 percent.

• Kyle: September rebate $648,441.08, up 2.80 percent. Year-to-date total is $5,930,792.35, up 8.92 percent.

• Mountain City: September rebate $1,405.46, up 7.65 percent. Year-todate total is $15,342.11, up 30.42 percent.

• Uhland: September rebate $14,701.59, down 18.88 percent. Year-to-date total is $159,676.36, up 8.69 percent.

Overall, Comptroller Glen Hegar distributed almost $739 million in monthly rebates. Allocations to cities were up 9 percent for the month and are at 8 percent for the year so far.

September allocations generally reflect sales that occurred in July.

San Marcos Daily Record Editor Anita Miller contributed to this story.