by BOB BARTON
The cities of Buda and Kyle hit the sales tax jackpot this week, receiving sales tax revenue from the holiday consumer season that smashed all previous monthly records.
Kyle’s total sales tax receipts for goods and services sold in December zoomed through the roof, reaching $378,000 for a whopping 14.6 percent increase over for the same period in 2009. It broke the previous one-month record from November 2010 by nearly $50,000.
Buda’s receipts also set a new record for the other booming Hays County corridor city with an 8.7 increase over the same month last year. It banked $367,000 for its share of last December’s sales, topping the $366,000 it received back in February 2007 when the full effects of Cabella’s grand opening were recorded.
Buda, which got its first major retail center several years before Kyle, has topped $300,000 in monthly receipts 13 times. This is only the fifth similar bonanza for Kyle.
Dripping Springs, although lagging far behind Kyle and Buda, is still off to a spectacular sales tax year. Its $112,000 in receipts is a giant 47 percent increase over last February’s total and the fast-growing western Hays County city will almost certainly top a million dollars in its share of state sales taxes by the year’s end.
Our county seat, San Marcos, also set an all-time record, banking more than $2.3 million for the month for a solid 7.7 percent increase over last year.
The one puzzler in the county was Wimberley’s share of the tax. Its $74,000 monthly sum is slightly less than the town banked last February. Uhland almost doubled its take to $4,805, while Woodcreek, Hays, Mountain City and Niederwald also showed small increases in receipts.
Overall, the 1,144 cities in the state registered slightly more than a five percent increase in receipts over sales taxes received this month for December 2010 taxable sales.
