Last year's collections may have been buoyed by money from the BP oil spill
Collections of sales taxes and other fees in Jefferson Parish dropped nearly 7 percent in February from the previous year, a "rather large decrease" that the Sheriff's Office attributed primarily to "stagnation of the local economy." The Sheriff's Office collected $32.7 million in tax revenue in February, down $2.4 million from the same month last year.
View full sizeThe intersection of Causeway Boulevard and Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie was photographed in October 2010. "Overall, this decrease appears to be caused by the continuing stagnation of the local economy," the Sheriff's Office said in a news release. "It also appears that last year's collections were buoyed by money from the BP oil spill that was still running through the economy."
The Sheriff's Office also said year-to-year fluctuations in collection schedules for occupational licenses and insurance premiums contributed to the drop.
Those collections plunged more than 50 percent from $4 million in February 2011 to $1.8 million this February. Much, if not all, of the decrease is expected to be made up in subsequent months.
Taxes collected by the Sheriff's Office include sales taxes, use taxes, hotel-motel taxes, licenses and permits, motor vehicle taxes and miscellaneous costs and fees.
Jefferson Parish President John Young's administration has been watching sales tax receipts closely after a slump in collections in early 2010 prompted the parish to issue a hiring freeze.
Young said that downward trend has been replaced by modest gains that are less than the typical 3 percent year-over-year increases that were the norm before the economic slowdown.
"Our sales tax collections are trending up, but we're definitely not flush with cash or out of the woods yet," he said.
Young said the parish's $10.5 million in sales tax receipts for February was down about $125,000, or a little more than 1 percent, from a year earlier. Combined receipts for the first two months of the year are slightly ahead of last year's pace, he said.
The Sheriff's Office reported that automobile sales taxes were down nearly 4 percent across the parish in February compared with a year earlier.
With so many car dealerships in the parish, auto sales typically account for 10 percent to 12 percent of total sales tax receipts. But February's figure of $2.1 million was just 6.5 percent of the total, the Sheriff's Office said.
While taxes generated at the Louis Armstrong International Airport were down 12 percent, hotel and motel taxes surged nearly 50 percent. "Apparently, the people that did visit our area arrived by car or other means," the Sheriff's Office said.
Paul Rioux can be reached at prioux@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3785.