Smiley tops all Texas cities for sales tax revenue

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

And it wasn’t even close.

The community of less than 500 people in southern Gonzales County, which also topped the state list in June, registered the state’s highest jump in revenue with a 417.05 percent increase for November over the previous year. Only two other towns surpassed the 400 percent barrier, and both were less than 410 percent.

Smiley, which has been inundated with oilfield-industry business for the past year, saw a sales tax revenue jump for November from $694.10 in 2011 to $3,963.72 this year.

Although Smiley was the big winner in Gonzales County, Nixon kept pace with its year-to-date totals, while Gonzales saw only a small increase over the same time last year. Waelder, meanwhile, continued a slide with another month that failed to record as much sales tax revenue as the same month in 2011.

Gonzales will receive the biggest paycheck at $189,956.82, an increase of 17.12 percent over November 2011. For the year, Gonzales has earned $2,301,905.13, up 24.48 percent from the $1,849,141.87 of a year ago.

Nixon realized an increase for the month of 43.67 percent, jumping from $21,416.50 in November 2011 to $30,770.69 this year. For 2012, Nixon’s $322,353.53 is ahead of last year’s $215,566.54 by 49.53 percent.

Waelder experienced a dip of 9.04 percent in November sales tax revenue from $1,937.24 to $1,762.03. For the year, Waelder is down almost a third from 2011, registered a decrease of 30.91 percent from $34,053.07 to $23,525.34.

Total revenue for the four cities for November is $226,453.26, an increase of 21.59 percent over November 2011. For the year, $2,682,417.91 has been distributed to the county cities, up 26.95 percent over last year’s $2,112,843.04.

Texas comptroller Susan Combs said sales tax revenue for the state in November was $2.34 billion, up 13.1 percent compared to November 2011.

“Gains across major sectors boosted state sales tax revenue,” Combs said. “Collections were strong in sectors such as retail trade, manufacturing, oil and natural gas, construction and telecommunications.”

Combs has sent December local sales tax allocations totaling $552 million to 1,144 cities, counties, transit systems and special-purpose taxing districts. December sales tax allocations were up 15.5 percent compared to December 2011.