Smiley tops county charts for July sales tax revenue increase

As has become commonplace with the boom in the nearby Eagle Ford Shale, Smiley has again topped the charts in Gonzales County for largest increase by percentage in monthly sales tax revenue.

The community of less than 500 people in southern Gonzales County, which topped the charts for all Texas cities in June, registered the state’s ninth highest jump in revenue with a 258.97 percent increase for July over the previous year.

Smiley, which added a restaurant and has been inundated with oilfield-industry business in the past year, saw a sales tax revenue jump for July from $1,282.46 to $4,603.69.

Only a handful of Texas cities exceeded Smiley’s total for the month. Mustang, located in Navarro County just south of Corsicana, led the way with a phenomenal 3,684.70 percent jump (from $11.05 in July 2011 to $418.21 in 2012), followed by Rocky Mound in Camp County in northeast Texas at 527.30 percent, Floydada in Floyd County in the panhandle at 511.55 percent, Briaroaks in Johnson County near Fort Worth at 465.03 percent, Webberville in Travis County just east of Austin at 417.31 percent, the Gulf Coast city of Jones Creek in Brazoria County with 324.01 percent, Garrett in Ellis County near Waxahachie with 321.93 percent and Big Wells in Dimmit County with 285.98 percent.

Although Smiley was the big winner in Gonzales County, Nixon kept pace with its year-to-date totals, while Gonzales and Waelder saw only a small increase over the same time last year.

Gonzales will receive the biggest paycheck at $181,835.02, an increase of just 2.98 percent over July 2011. For the year, Gonzales has earned $1,125,892.62, up 38.62% from the $1,560,788.21 of a year ago.

Nixon realized an increase for the month of 51.27 percent, jumping from $20,216.99 in July 2011 to $30,582.29 this year. For 2012, Nixon’s $204,007.19 is ahead of last year’s $135,418.37 by a little over 50 percent.

Waelder experienced a slight gain of 1.09 percent in July sales tax revenue from $2,230.09 to $2,254.41. For the year, Waelder is only slightly ahead of 2011, an increase of 5.49 percent from $16,260.27 to $16,153.33.

Total revenue for the four cities for July is $219,275.41, an increase of 9.47 percent over July 2011. For the year, $1,805,006.47 has been distributed to the county cities, up 40.22 percent over last year’s $1,287,228.88.

Texas comptroller Susan Combs said sales tax revenue for the state in July was $2.05 billion, up 10.1 percent compared to July 2011.

“Business spending in the oil and natural gas industry and other sectors continues to be robust,” Combs said. “That spending, along with increases in consumer sectors such as retail trade, continues to boost sales tax collections. State sales tax revenue has now increased for 28 consecutive months.”



Combs has sent August local sales tax allocations totaling $632.1 million to 1,145 cities, counties, transit systems and special-purpose taxing districts. August sales tax allocations were up 4.2 percent compared to August 2011.