August 13th, 2010
Sales taxes continue increase along Interstate-35

STAFF REPORT

Hays County’s sales tax checks from the State of Texas comptroller’s office made nice gain over a year earlier this month, with the county’s municipalities showing an increase of 8.31 percent.

San Marcos continued a nice rebound, raising its sales tax take for the sixth time in the last seven months and setting its all-time record for August, which reflects retail sales activity from June. The city brought in $1.637,026.38, 4.08 percent more than its take of $1,572,711.45 in August 2009. The previous August record was $1,581,004.89 in 2008.

The increase in August closely tracks the city’s sales tax increase for the entire year so far. Through August, San Marcos has collected $12,414,478.34, up $111,975,864.71 through August 2009.

The big winner in August was Buda, which saw a 29.46 percent increase in August 2010 from August 2009. Buda brought in $365,327.61 in August, up from $282,171.85 during the same month a year earlier. The rally enabled Buda to nudge past its collections for the entire year through August. Buda has taken in $2,200,638.39 through August, up 0.44 percent from its total of $2,190,838.46 through August 2009.

Kyle saw another large increase, improving 9.85 percent in August from the same month a year earlier. Kyle brought in $322,534.90 in August 2010 after taking in $293,590.93 in August 2009. For the year, Kyle has collected $2,005,440.15 through August, up 14.98 percent from its collections of $1,744,153.72 through August 2009.

Among the other Hays County cities, Dripping Springs, Hays, Mountain City and Uhland experienced sales tax increases in August over the same month a year ago, and all of those cities are up for the year.

Woodcreek experienced an increase of 30.77 percent in August over the same month a year ago, reaching $3,840.83 in sales tax collections. However, Woodcreek has collected $22,627.53 for the year through August, down 4.43 from a year ago.

Wimberley and Niederwald both were down in August compared with the same month a year earlier, and they both are down for the year through August compared with the same period in 2009.

Wimberley has had nine straight months of sales tax decline compared with the same month a year earlier, and had fallen by that measure in 15 of the last 18 months. In August, Wimberley collected $69,025.11, down $72,634.60 from August 2009. For the year, Wimberley’s collections of $382,660.84 through August are down 7.93 percent from $415,624.87 from its collections through August 2009.