DAVID KAPITAN

The office of Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar delivered good news to county cities last week, announcing that six out of seven local entities had posted sales tax revenue gains when comparing against the same period from the previous year.

Grand Saline finished the month as Van Zandt County’s lone outlier with collections dipping from $53,775.88 in September 2021 down to $51,821.83 in September 2022. Despite the monthly drop, Grand Saline remains ahead of its yearly 2021 pace.

Wills Point, which finished August with the largest negative dollar change among county cities, rebounded impressively in September with a payment of $161,321.04. The most recent monthly payment was $31,115.11 or 23.9 percent more than the $130,205.93 payment the city received last year at the same time.

Canton finished with the second largest positive dollar change locally, seeing an increase of $29,158.35 when comparing its September 2022 payment against collection totals from September 2021.

Van, which posted a gain of $6,599.73 when comparing July 2022 against July 2021 revenue totals and $10,060.41 when comparing August 2022 against August 2021, continued its strong midyear push with collections increasing $6,244.86 comparing September 2022 against September 2021.

The City of Edgewood also enjoyed a solid month receiving a payment of $33,625.84 from the comptroller’s office. That payment was $1,367.23 or 4.24 percent more than the $32,258.61 payment received last year at the same time.

Fruitvale followed up gains of $1,932.87 in August with gains of $737.63 in August, while the City of Edom rounded out the list of local gainers with collections increasing 2.96 percent or $49.45.

Combined, the cities of Canton, Edgewood, Edom, Fruitvale, Grand Saline, Van and Wills Point saw an increase of $66,718.58 when comparing against collection totals recorded during September 2021.

In announcing the news, Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar stated this his office would be sending, “cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose districts $1.04 billion in local sales tax allocations for September, 13.1 percent more than in September 2021. These allocations are based on sales made in July by businesses that report tax monthly.”

Yearly collection totals

Canton, up $359,993.12, Wills Point, up $183,897.25, Van, up $64,764.99, Edgewood, up $49,688.40, Grand Saline, up $38,485.87, Fruitvale, up $20,077.46, and Edom, up $5,532.39, are all ahead of their 2021 pace through nine months.

Combined, the seven county cities are currently ahead of their 2021 pace by $722,439.48 with three months left in the year.