July local sales tax allocation checks are slightly less for most of the cities in the deep east Texas area which are reflective of the state-wide trend.

 

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said the state's sales tax revenue is down 1.4 percent compared to June 2014, which marks the first decline following 62 consecutive months of growth.

 

Hegar says the decline was expected due to the slowdown in the oil and gas mining sector.

 

Locally, Shelby County is down just over 4 percent as compared to a year ago, with the City of Center seeing a 3 percent decline.

 

Even with that drop, Center City Manager Chad Nehring said the city is still on track with budget projections providing services and operations.

 

Nehring added, "We'd certainly prefer continued growth and the positive impacts that would have on all our local businesses."

 

The current numbers are for May sales, and Nehring says with summer activities, particularly the tourism generated from the state baseball tournaments, the city of Center hopes to see that June and July activity shows growth over last year.

 

Center's check will be for $224,098.

 

Year-to-date, Center is tracking behind 2014 by 1.31 percent.

 

Elsewhere, Joaquin is down almost 23 percent, or some $4,000, and Timpson is down just about 13.5 percent, or $2,000 from the previous year's figures.

 

On the other hand, Huxley has grown a remarkably stout 366.5 percent, to $2,400, and Tenaha is up 1.84 percent from 2014 at $7,000.

 

San Augustine County's sales tax revenue has seen a 19.5 percent decline, with the City of San Augustine down over 21.5 percent as compared to a year ago ($33,038), and Broaddus up at 27 percent.