HARLINGEN — Spring Break was very, very good to South Padre Island.
State sales tax distribution to Texas cities released this past week show the island city had an increase in reimbursements of a whopping 31.22 percent over April of last year.
Elsewhere in the Valley, Harlingen showed a modest increase of 1.83 percent year over year, Brownsville showed a robust 7.7 percent increase for the month and McAllen reversed a months-long trend to show a 2.77 percent increase over April 2016.
The monthly state sales tax distribution is a rough indicator of the health of a city’s retail sector.
Overall in Texas, state sales tax numbers were up 3.6 percent over allocations from a year ago, indicating municipalities in oil-dependent regions are beginning to reverse a downturn in retail sales which paralleled the drop in the price of oil.
“The cities of Round Rock, Frisco, San Antonio, Midland and Odessa saw noticeable increases in sales tax allocations,” State Comptroller Glenn Hegar said. “The cities of Houston and Austin saw small decreases.”
In the Valley, a major problem for border cities has been the weak peso against the U.S. dollar. Many analysts say the disparity in buying power between the dollar and peso has had a negative impact on Mexican shoppers coming across the border to buy.
That pressure on Mexican shoppers may be easing.
In mid-January, the peso bottomed out at 21.95 per dollar due in no small part to uncertainty about a new Trump administration and what it would bring when it came to political and trade relations with Mexico.
But the peso has stabilized, rising to 18.68 per U.S. dollar as of this past week, and that appears to be helping McAllen (up 2.77 percent for the month), Brownsville (up a robust 7.70 percent) and Mercedes (up 11.93 percent for the month).
Last December, McAllen was down 10.36 percent, down 1.80 percent in January, down 6.95 percent in February and minus 7.12 percent in March.
The gain of 2.77 percent for April brings McAllen up to a negative 5.13 percent for the year, a sharp improvement over December when the city’s sales tax numbers were down 7.43 percent for the year.
Elsewhere in Cameron County, San Benito showed a strong April with sales tax numbers up 4.37 percent, and Los Fresnos showed a small gain of 0.31 percent.
La Feria showed a big 11.10 percent decline over the previous April, and Rio Hondo was down 9.06 percent. For the year the two cities are down 5.44 percent and 5.31 percent, respectively.
In Willacy County, Raymondville showed signs of retail life following the Wal-Mart closure there, up 9.20 percent over the previous April although still down 18.31 percent for the year.
Lyford was up 0.48 percent for the month, and 2.20 percent for the year.
Elsewhere in Hidalgo County, Weslaco was up 4.72 percent for the month (up 2.28 percent for the year), while Pharr was down 3.13 percent and Edinburg 1.16 percent. Pharr is up 0.67 for the year and Edinburg down 0.82 percent.
