Sales tax records reached again

The amount of money being spent in Wimberley continues to grow as distributions of funds collected for sales tax continue to break records across the Wimberley Valley.

The city of Wimberley, which receives one percent of all taxable sales made within the city limits, received a record $151,327.06 in February, which represents sales made in December of 2021.

That represents a nearly 21% increase compared to the same month last year. The $125,000 Wimberley took in during February of 2021 was a record month at the time only to be broken in August and November of last year.

“It is very impressive when you consider the city only receives one penny of every dollar spent in our city, so it is an impressive amount for our retailers,” Wimberley City Administrator Mike Boese said. “It is good we are doing well on our sales tax collections.”

Other jurisdictions in the Wimberley Val ley also set records for sales tax allocations. The Wimberley Village Library, which receives half a percent within areas of Wimberley ISD, also received a record sum of $115,411.85. That is nearly 21% more than the same month in 2021. Woodcreek receives one percent of all taxable sales made within the city limits and also set a new sales tax allocation record for their jurisdiction. They received $10,022.84 in the month of February, which was up 4.70% compared to the same month last year.

Wimberley Wastewater Connections

Around 60 percent of expected customers have completed connections into the city of Wimberley’s new sewer system, according to Boese.

At the city council meeting last week, Boese stated that out of the 107 expected connections to the sewer system, 63 were already operational excluding the four city-owned connections. While January totals were not available, around 40 customers paid a total of more than

$23,000 for sewer service in December.

Of the remaining 40 customers to be connected, 11 had obtained their permit and completed the application but were waiting for the contractor to finish the work. An additional nine were delayed by engineering. Seven were in an area where there was no active water connection and therefore did not need a sewer connection and 13 had not started the process. Boese stated that letters were once again mailed to those who had not started the process of hooking up to the system in addition to attempting to make contact in per son to try and “get them on board before we have to take some sort of enforcement action.”

HOT Tax

The city also appointed seven lodging owners to the new Hotel Occupancy Tax Advisory Committee. Natalie Meeks, Bruce Levinson, Chris Herndon, Jennifer Ober, Mac McCullough, Helena Hauk and Scott Way were all appointed. The committee will make recommendations, in collaboration with city council, on how the funds are allocated, according to Boese.