Parish sales tax receipts up 6.97%
posted Thursday, December 20th, 2012 @ 8:06 am

Sales tax collections in Concordia Parish from July 2011 to June 2012 were up 6.97% over the previous fiscal year, according to Tax Collector Randy Temple of the School Board's Sales Tax Division.

Temple said any time sales tax collections rise above five percent "it's considered healthy."

Sales tax income was up $821,703.11 over the previous fiscal year, Temple said, from $10,864,601.15 during July 2010 to June 2011 to $11,686,304.24 during July 2011 to June 2012.

The School Board Sales Tax Division collects taxes for governmental bodies in the parish, including the School Board, Riverland Medical Center, the Police Jury and the towns of Vidalia and Ferriday.

The School Board levies two 1% parishwide sales taxes, Riverland levies a .25% parishwide tax, the Police Jury levies a 2.5% sales tax applicable outside Vidalia and Ferriday, Vidalia levies a 2.5 percent sales tax applicable only in the city limits Vidalia and Ferriday levies a 2.5 percent tax applicable only in the city limits of Ferriday.

During the 2011-2012 fiscal year, collections for the two School Board taxes totaled $5.92 million, while Riverland Medical Center collected $615,035.53, the Police Jury $2.47 million, Town of Vidalia $2.55 million and Town of Ferriday $1.11 million.

Increases over the previous fiscal year were School Board, $342,097.23; Riverland, $42,838.19; Police Jury, $330,366.72 and Vidalia, $121,281.34.

Ferriday's sales tax collections were flat, falling $15,690.37 below the previous fiscal year.

As is typical, collections were the highest in January, which primarily represented December sales. Those totals for January 2012 included School Board, $552,064.48; Riverland, $68,994.57; Police Jury, $270,280.25; Vidalia, $284,408.76; and Ferriday, $135,263.84.

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