Although shelter in place orders didn’t begin to shut down non-essential businesses until late March, Comptroller Glen Hegar’s office said retail sales statewide were about 5 percent lower this year than in 2019.
The City of Snyder and Scurry County both saw drops in retail sales in March, which were reflected in the May allocations Hegar’s office will distribute this month.
The City of Snyder will receive $312,519 in sales tax revenue this month, a decrease of 12.78 percent compared to last May, when the city received $358,342 from the state.
Year-to-date the city has received just more than $1.3 million back from the state, compared to almost $1.43 million over the first five months of 2019.
That represents an 8.62 percent decrease.
Scurry County will receive $215,951 in sales tax revenue this month, a 3.56 percent decrease from last May, when the county received $223,930 back from the state.
Year-to-date the county has received just more than $1 million back from the state, a .76 percent increase — about $7,600 — over the first five months’ allocations last year.
Several smaller cities in the region received lower allocations in May, although both Lubbock and Abilene saw drops.
Hegar announced this week he will send cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $824.1 million in local sales tax allocations for May, 5 percent less than in May 2019.
These allocations are based on sales made in March by businesses that report tax monthly, and sales made in January, February and March by quarterly filers.
Widespread social distancing requirements were not in place across much of the state until late March, meaning the impact of those measures affected only a portion of allocations for this month.
The agency expects next month’s allocations, based on April sales, will show steeper declines compared to a year ago.