HARLINGEN — Sales tax reimbursements for April totaled $618 million statewide, a drop of 1.8 percent which officials attributed to oil industry doldrums.
Locally, cities in Cameron County also saw year-over-year declines, although they were much smaller than in cities linked to the oil and gas industries.
Harlingen received $1.75 million, down from $1.76 million last April, a 0.56 percent drop. However, the city’s sales tax revenues remain up 2.74 percent for 2016 over last year.
San Benito also saw a monthly drop of 0.68 percent, receiving a total of $329,000. The city’s sales tax revenues for 2016 are up 7.7 percent over last year.
South Padre Island showed the largest drop in sales tax revenues in Cameron County year-over-year, down 11.7 percent in April. The Island’s sales tax revenues are down 4.3 percent in 2016.
Brownsville received $2.7 million in sales tax revenues, a drop of 7.9 percent.
In Willacy County, Raymondville showed a 36 percent drop in sales tax revenues, while Lyford showed a gain of 9 percent over the previous year.
In other Cameron County cities:
La Feria revenues for April were up 3.88 percent for the month; Los Fresnos was down 12.4 percent for the month; Los Indios was up 25 percent; Rio Hondo was up 9.8 percent; Palm Valley was down 4.5 percent; Rancho Viejo was up 34 percent; Primera was up 11 percent; Santa Rosa was up 101 percent; and Combes was up 26 percent.
Among Hidalgo County cities:
McAllen received $4.4 million in sales tax revenues, a decline of 8.5 percent; Edinburg received $1.6 million, up 3 percent; Weslaco received $921,000, which was down 0.3 percent; Mercedes received revenues of $454,000, which was down 12 percent; and Mission received tax revenues of $1.14 million, down 3.3 percent.
“Energy-centric cities such as Midland, Odessa and Corpus Christi continued to see decreases in sales tax allocations,” Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said this week. “Meanwhile other areas of the state helped offset those losses as Austin, El Paso and Irving saw moderate increases in allocations.”
Midland showed a decline in sales tax revenues for April of 18 percent, while Corpus Christi was down 10 percent and Odessa down 21 percent.
