Lamar City Sales Tax Revenue Takes a Drop for 2019

Sales Tax Revenues for the City of Lamar are down for December sales collected in January 2019. City Sales Tax is off 14.95% for a drop of $63,171 comparing 2019 to 2018.  Collections for 2019 are at $359,434.37 compared to 2018 at $422,605.84.  Use Tax collections are also down by 61.59% for a decrease of $42,871.98 comparing 2019 to 2018.  Use Tax collections for 2019 are $26,740.98 while 2018 collections registered $69,612.96.  Total Sales and Use Tax collections were off 20.81% for a decrease of $104,685.24.  Collections for 2019 are $398,405.49 and were at $503,090.73 for 2018.

Two significant drops were noted in the twelve retail sales categories between 2018 and 2019 with Building Materials and All Business/Electricity showing just how much various construction projects over the past two years contributed to Lamar’s sales tax projections.  It was also noted that six of the ten motels in Lamar posted a drop in their revenues during this period.