Sales tax collections down in July

St. Mary Parish sales and use tax collections decreased by over 10 percent in July compared to last year as parish officials hope to see a turn for the better by the end of the year.

The sales and use tax department collected $3.16 million in sales and use taxes, 10.4 percent decline from the $3.53 million collected in July 2017. Financial audits resulted in $99,934 in collections during July compared to the $82,142 from audits for July 2017, according to the monthly sales tax report.

The parish hotel sales tax brought in $47,867 in July, a 4 percent drop from the $49,875 gathered in the same month of 2017.

Frank Fink, the parish’s economic development director, said the area’s economy is still in “a holding pattern,” and deep-water oil and gas activity is just starting to pick up. Companies related to deep-water production are starting to add jobs.

“I think we’ll start to see some positive effects by year end,” Fink said.

Oil prices recently hit what Fink called “the floor” of $65 per barrel. Fink looks forward to business picking up the rest of the year.

St. Mary’s unemployment rate was 8 percent in June, up from the 6.8 percent rate in May, according to the latest employment statistics from the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

June’s workforce, the sum of residents employed and those looking for work, totaled 20,236 people, with 18,608 employed residents and 1,628 unemployed. May’s workforce totaled 19,887 residents, with 18,540 employed and 1,347 unemployed.

That 68-person uptick in the number of employed residents was the first such monthly increase since February, when the parish gained 24 jobs compared to January.

An increase in the unemployment rate was actually a positive sign, because more people were looking for jobs in June than in May, Fink said.

“If there wasn’t much activity, they wouldn’t be looking,” he said.

The June 2017 unemployment rate was 8.8 percent with 19,043 people employed and 1,827 unemployed.

Sales tax collections totaled $2.97 million in June, up 8.2 percent from the $2.74 million collected during June 2017. Without collections made as a result of financial audits, collections rose 5.2 percent. Audits brought in $83,660 in June and $3,100 in the same month of the prior year.

The parish’s hotel sales tax brought in $36,720 in June, an 11.1 percent decrease from the $41,295 collected in June 2017.

In May, officials collected $2.74 million in sales and use taxes, down 12.8 percent from the $3.15 million collected in May 2017. Excluding collections due to financial audits, collections decreased just 2.7 percent.

Audit collections totaled $3,330 in May, while May 2017 audit collections were $330,529.

April sales and use tax collections totaled $3.29 million, up 4.5 percent from the $3.14 million collected in April 2017. Financial audits brought in $75,008 in April compared to the $3,100 in audit collections in the same month of 2017. Excluding collections from audits, collections rose 2.3 percent.

Second quarter sales tax collections brought in about $9 million, a 0.4 percent drop from the $9.03 million collected in 2017’s second quarter. Excluding collections from audits, collections increased 1.6 percent.

Hotel collections for the second quarter were $120,595, almost exactly the same as the $120,580 collected in the second quarter of 2017.

Morgan City’s road royalty sales tax had $69,555 in net collections during July, bringing the seven-month 2018 total collected for road work to $446,436.

The following occupational licenses were filed in July: Morgan City, $8,930; St. Mary Parish, $2,972; Patterson, $1,800; Franklin, $1,085; Berwick, $485; and Baldwin, $69.