Marble Falls sales tax receipts from December set record
Marble Falls sales tax receipts set a record in December, according to the state comptroller.
The February payment to the city — which is based on December sales — was $890,983.99, up 8.42 percent from the previous year’s amount.
The city’s previous highest month was a $855,898.70 payment in May 2018.
According to the industry breakdown, the building materials industry had a 24.47 percent increase from the previous year, suggesting some of the increase is due to continued flood recovery.
“With that said, that industry (building materials) typically accounts for about twenty-five to thirty percent of our gain in a given month, so construction activity has been driving our economy for awhile now, even prior to the flood,” said Christian Fletcher, Marble Falls Economic Development Corp. executive director.
The state’s payments for the first two months of the year are up 7.81 percent compared to January-February of 2018.
That high percent might not last the year if flood recovery efforts decrease.
“I think our sweet spot is between three and five percent growth with modest construction activity,” Fletcher said. “If things slow or accelerate, I would expect the growth rate to match pace.”
The largest industry in the city is general merchandise, which had $151,066.96 in sales tax receipts, down 4.14 percent from the previous year. Building materials followed at $148,023.07.
The next highest industries were restaurants ($80,763.57), food and beverage stores ($74,345.67), miscellaneous stores ($57,716.14), and utilities ($48,508.21).
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