For the first time in 13 months, Allen Parish’s sales tax collection totals were in the negative column along with some of the funds collected for different governing bodies. This was expected by those working in the tax collections department who explained the increases were associated with damages and other items associated with Hurricanes Laura (August 27, 2020) and Delta (October 9, 2020) and the winter storm weather (February 2021) earlier this year.
The last report with a negative number was reported in August of 2020 when the month-to-date total was at $1,228,557.25, a decrease of -2.32 percent compared to the previous year’s total of $1,257,761.00. In September of 2020, the parish began to see an increase in overall totals with a 1.41 percent increase in September 2020; 65.11 percent increase in October 2020; 46.44 percent in November 2020; and 21.84 percent in December 2020. This past year, those numbers have steadily held or increased in month-to-month comparisons between 2020 and 2021 until October’s collection report was released.
Government bodies seeing decreases included the school board’s #1 and #2 account ($632,234.58 from $752,929.44 for a -16.03 percent difference) and #3 account ($316,070.46 from $376,663.56 for a -16.09 percent difference), police jury ($221,250.09 from $263,665.48 for a -16.09 percent difference), City of Oakdale ($132,041.28 from $148,370.33 for a -11.01 percent difference), occupancy tax ($7,394.30 from $11,834.66 for a -37.52 percent difference), tourism ($22,182.86 from $35,503.96 for a -37.52 percent difference) and sheriff’s office ($316,070.45 from $376,663.78 for a -16.09 percent difference).
Kinder ($65,583.37 to $71,446.28 for a 8.94 percent increase), Oberlin ($18,538.36 to $20,856.34 for a 12.50 percent increase), Elizabeth ($9,063.67 to $12,451.09 for a 37.37 percent increase), Reeves ($3,578.25 to $6,357.40 for a 77.67 percent increase) and the library/sewage tax in Kinder ($19,675.10 to $21,433.91 for a 8.94 percent increase) – all saw increases in October.
The overall totals for the year’s comparisons remain ahead at $16,914,412.72 for $3,185,245.17 more in 2021 to this date than in 2020.
LSUA releases consumer study
LSUA recently conducted a study on consumer spending that focused on collections for September and illustrated eight of the 10 jurisdictions reporting saw a -32 percent fall in tax revenue. Data for Allen Parish is not included in that study, but the report does give data for some areas of economic information.
Some of the data focusing on the parish included the following:
•Region Six in the state, which included Allen Parish, has the second lowest vaccination rates among the population with 38.2 percent as of October 17, 2021. As of October 13, the parish had a 25.34 percent of vaccinations.
•In the area of unemployment rates, Allen Parish reported 7,621 in its labor force with 7,183 employed and 438 unemployed in August of 2021. The unemployment rate for August was 5.7 percent compared to 6.8 percent in July. The central parishes average unemployment rate was at 4.7 percent compared to the state’s 5.5 percent rate.
•Total online sales tax revenue in Allen for September 2020 was at $39,092. In August of 2021, it was 459,650, and in September of this year, it was at $63,370.
•Parish permit valuations for Allen showed $1,045,000 in September 2018, $532,000 in September 2019, $189,308 in September 2020 and $2,245,372 in September 2021. And the year-to-date totals for the parish (January to September 2021) were at $3,526,670 in 2018, $3,826,541 in 2019, $4,266,903 in 2020 and $7,891,930 in 2021.
•Residential construction permits for new residential construction in Allen Parish (estimated development cost) was at $161,308 in September 2020 and at $2,245,372 in September 2021 for a change of $2,084,064. Year-over-year value of residential construction in the Rapides Region increased from $6.6 million in September 2020 to $9.2 million in September 2021.
•In August 2021, Louisiana’s welcome centers recorded the first monthly decline in traffic since March. (2021 – January and February was at 0, March was at 27,605, April at 31,479, May at 34,874, July at 51,090 and August at 22,973.) There was no data for the parish.
•Louisiana’s gasoline sales in July 2021 fell six percent from June but was one percent above the July 2020 stats. Gasoline sales year-to-date in the state for July were seven percent above the same period in 2020.
•Under consumer spending, a table illustrates a positive 34 percent change in Allen Parish according to stats for average consumer credit and debit card spending as of September 19, 2021, with January 2020 serving as the baseline. Rapides Parish was at a positive 43 percent; Evangeline at a positive 26 percent and St. Landry Parish at a negative 21 percent when compared in the same time frame.
You can learn more at http://www.lsua.edu/coronavirus/cenla-economic-dashboard.