Rio Grande Valley cities outshone much of the rest of Texas in sales tax revenues for March, indicating the bounce-back from the economic bite of the pandemic that began a year ago is continuing.
Statewide, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts will receive $1.06 billion in local sales tax allocations for sales made in March, a 21.9 percent increase over a year ago.
Some cities in the Valley were significantly higher than the state average.
In Cameron County, South Padre Island led the way with an astonishing increase of 114.62 percent over the previous March, followed by Brownsville (up 51.83 percent), Harlingen (up 40.00 percent), La Feria (up 39.09 percent), Los Fresnos (up 33.49 percent), Port Isabel (up 32.52 percent), San Benito (up 29.49 percent) and Rio Hondo (up 23.48 percent).
In Willacy County, Raymondville was up 32.72 percent for March, and Lyford was down 9.66 percent.
In Hidalgo County, Mercedes reversed a months-long trend to post a gain of 82.76 percent for the month, followed by Mission (up 60.70 percent), Weslaco (up 44.80 precent), McAllen (up 41.52 percent), Pharr (up 38.38 percent) and Edinburg (up 26.65 percent).
