Sales Tax collections show increase through first four months

     Low gas prices earlier this year gave consumers more money in their pockets to spend on other things -- purchases that include sales tax. 

The result was a good bump in sales tax receipts in the parish, Sales Tax Supervisor Wilfred Ducote said.

     “We are on pace for about a 5 percent increase over the past year,” Ducote said. “I anticipate that trend to continue for the year, even though gas prices are going back up.” Ducote said the parish averages between a 3-4 percent increase in sales tax collections each year.

     There had been concerns that layoffs in the oil and gas industry would be reflected in reduced spending and thus lower sales tax collections. If there was a negative due to layoffs, it was offset by other consumers increasing their spending on sales taxable items.

     Those who watch and analyze economic trends have noted that the recent downturn in the oil and gas industry is, in a way, good news for Louisiana because it shows how much more diversified the state and local economies  have become since the mid-1980s, when this parish experienced record unemployment, several business closures and a drop in real estate prices as a result of the oil crash.

     If the current pace of collections continues, the School Board will top $7.5 million in sales tax receipts for a third straight year.

Through April, Ducote’s office -- which also handles collections for all local governments’ sales taxes -- had collected over $2.65 million, almost $128,600 more than the $2.52 million at this time last year from the board’s 1.75 cents of sales tax.

    The sales taxes totaled $6.17 million in 2011 and jumped to $6.9 million in 2012. A large part of that increase was a new 1/4-cent sales tax the School Board passed for teacher salaries in February of that year.

    There have been no new sales taxes added since that one.

    Sales tax collections increased to $7.83 million in 2013, but almost $300,000 of that was a one-time payment by Acadian Gas Pipeline and Anadarko Oil Exploration. There was no such lagniappe in 2014, which had over $7.6 million in collections. 

     While the sales tax figures are showing a small increase, sales taxes from auto sales tax have dipped somewhat over the past two months. The School Board’s taxes from car sales dropped from $117,432  to $93,098 in March and from $123,684 to $118,134 in April.

     The total for all local sales tax collections for the first four months was just over $6.9 million, up from $6.57 million for this time last year.