May sales tax revenues up for Burnet County

Sales tax distributions for Marble Falls for the month of May 2018 rebounded strongly as collections for the year are nearly back on par with 2017.

Statewide, sales tax collections and distributions were up 9.4 percent, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced last week, as he sent $861.8 million to Texas cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts.

This month, Hegar sent a check to Marble Falls for $855,898.70, up 8.44 percent over the $789,268.37 received in May 2017 for sales tax collections reported in March by businesses which report monthly and sales made in January, February and March by quarterly filers.

For the year, Marble Falls has received $3,547,047.13, just a little less than 1 percent off the $3,582,867.90 received to this point last year.

Sales tax allocations were also up by double digit percentages in Horseshoe Bay and Granite Shoals. In Horseshoe Bay, the allocation for May 2018 was up 28.93 percent from last year, going from $101,532.39 to $130,913.24. For the year, Horseshoe Bay leads the county with the largest percentage increase with an impressive 25.75 percent raise from $408,476.23 in 2017 to $513,694.26 this year.

Granite Shoals brought in 15.79 percent more in May 2018, up from $27,121.65 last year to $31,404.62 this year. Overall, Granite Shoals is up 3.06 percent for the year as the city has collected $125,586.93 since January, compared to $121,855.22 collected at the same point last year.

The highest perecntage increase for the month was in Bertram, where sales tax allocations rose by 29.38 percent in May 2018 from 21,257.28 to $21,503.20. For the year, allocations are up a healthy 15.42 percent in Bertram, from $90,289.13 collected at this point in 2017 to the $104,213.89 collected at this point this year.

In Burnet, sales tax allocation for May 2018 was $221,220.17, or 3.38 percent more than the $213,981.46 collected in May 2017. For the year, sales tax collections are down 5.49 percent, from $964,996.20 collected at this point in 2017 to $911,990.89 collected at this point this year.

Finally, Cottonwood Shores was the only municipality in Burnet County which experienced a decrease in sales tax allocations in the month of May. The city collected $13,809.25 this month, down 16.46 percent from the $16,531.60 collected last May. For the year, however, sales tax revenues are still up about 2.74 percent from $65,506.46 through this point last year to $67,306.89 at a comparable point this year.

Three cities in Burnet County — Marble Falls, Burnet and Granite Shoals — collect the maximum allowable sales tax rate of 2 percent, while Bertram and Horseshoe Bay collect 1.75 percent and Cottonwood Shores collects 1.5 percent.