The parish’s sales tax collections continue to show growth in the last three months of comparison reports published.
March’s numbers indicated the parish grew by 17.96 percent. (MTD for 2024 was at $1.7 and in the previous year at $1.4.) January and February were similar with January growing 47.31 percent with MTD collections growing from $1.5 to $2.7. February grew 32.45 percent with growth going from $1.4 to $1.9. December’s 2023’s report had shown a negative 20.81 percent.
In March, the school board’s three accounts grew an average of 19.91 percent. School board #1 and #2 collected $642,967.10 compared to January 2023’s $536,223.55. School Board #3 collected $321,481.63 compared to $268,074.79. The other two big increases were noted for the police jury’s solid waste account and the sheriff’s account. Both increased by 19.92 percent. Solid Waste collected $225,037.60, an increase from last year’s collections of $187,652.78. The sheriff’s collections grew to $321,481.63 from $268,074.79.
In March, the communities saw increases. In Kinder, collections grew 18.37 percent from $45,483.80 to $53,840.11. Oberlin increased by 15.29 percent from $13,234.16 to $15,268.73. Elizabeth increased 23.03 percent from $6,288.91 to $7,737.52. Oakdale grew 7.06 percent from $117,518.01 to $125,818.53. Reeves did see a small decrease of 3.25 percent. Collections were at $3,406 from last year’s collections of $3,531.54.
Over the past few months, the parish’s occupancy tax and tourist commission collections have decreased. In March, the two saw a decease of 43.19 percent. The occupancy tax was at $2,620.02, which was less than the previous year at $4,612.01. The tourist commission collected $860.08 this year compared to $13,836.01 last year. (January saw a decrease of 30.83, and February was at a negative 57.71.)