Recent sales tax reports reflect stronger local economy and include Christmas sales

Retail sales in December are helping give a jump start to the most recent sales tax reports released by the state comptroller's office.

For purchases made during December, all cities in Cherokee County, with the exception of Cuney and New Summerfield, posted increases.

Wells lead the county with a whopping 105 percent increase, followed by Rusk with an almost 28 percent increase.

Alto posted an almost eight percent increase while New Summerfield and Cuney showed declines of 5.10 and 1.06 percent respectively.

A spokesman at the state comptroller's office told the Cherokeean Herald in a previous interview that it is not uncommon to see wide fluctuations in sales tax rebates in small cities. If a business files sales tax reports late, those figures help inflat the following month's numbers.

In the chart below, the final column compares the year-to-date sales tax rebates from 2008 and 2007. After a period of three or four months, the fluctuations even out and project a more accurate snapshot of the local economy.

Statewide, sales tax rebates were up an average 5.1 percent.

State Comptroller Susan Combs sent $640.8 million in local sales tax to Texas cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts. Comptroller of Public Accounts City and County Sales Tax Rebates Released February 2008

Cities	Rate	Net Payment	Comparable payment	% Change	2008	2007	% Change
		this period	prior year	to date	to date	to date	payments
Alto	1.000%	10,779.17	9,992.23	7.87%	15,552.46	15,985.29	-2.70%
Cuney	1.500%	9,070.04	9,167.24	-1.06%	14,585.06	14,055.75	3.76%
Jacksonville	1.500%	323,668.81	321,831.50	0.57%	539,950.15	519,573.89	3.92%
New Summerfield	1.000%	1,987.70	2,094.69	-5.10%	2,987.76	3,276.89	-8.82%
Rusk	1.500%	71,508.69	55,916.98	27.88%	102,612.50	84,090.92	22.02%
Wells	1.000%	5,377.72	2,619.18	105.32%	10,620.67	4,274.15	148.48%
County Total		422,392.13	401,621.82	5.17%	686,308.60	641,256.89	7.02%
Cherokee	0.500%	153,571.54	173,355.27	-11.41%	262,468.37	285,463.30	-8.05%
						graphic: Cherokeean Herald