Sales tax collections mostly on the upswing

Sales tax collections in Eunice and St. Landry Parish were, with one exception, on the upswing in June, according to statistics from the St. Landry Parish School Board Sales Tax Division.
In Eunice, June collections were $431,498, up 4.6 percent from June 2016’s $412,680.
June sales tax collections rose 4.8 percent from June 2016 collections of $411,583 compared to this year’s $431,498.
Eunice tax collections from January through June were $2,688,257, down $15,235 or 0.6 percent from the same period in 2016.
The Eunice year-to-date collections are trending up. In the May report, Eunice tax collections were down 0.8 percent from the previous year’s year-to-date total. In April, Eunice total collections for the year were 1.6 percent below the same period in 2016.
St. Landry Parish total sales tax collections from January through June were $33,730,425, up 3.5 percent or $1,135,571, from the same period in 2016. In May, the parish year-to-date collections were up 4.2 percent and in April it was up 4.4 percent.
The parish sales tax total includes collections for the parish, School Board, solid waste, law enforcement and municipal taxes.
In June, total parish sales tax collections were $5,401,414, up 0.3 percent or $13,120 over the June 2016 collections of $5,388,294.
Total parish sales tax collections jumped 6.3 percent — $319,181 — from May to June when the total was $5,401,414.
The sales tax rate in Eunice is 10.75 percent. Of that 5 percent is state, 3.55 percent is parish and 2.2 percent is city.
Unincorporated areas in St. Landry Parish pay a 10.5 percent sales tax revenue, which includes 5 percent state and 5.5 percent parish rates.
On April 1, 2016, the state sales tax rate rose by 1 percent.