Well, my long-predicted economic pain appears to be here at last.
While the state of Texas saw sales tax receipts UP 3.29% year-over-year, the City of Lampasas got dinged hard: DOWN 9.13%
Last year receipts were $249,953 and THIS year, they are $227,121
OUCH.
This not only the biggest pain I think I’ve ever seen for Lampasas, but it also marks FOUR MONTHS IN A ROW of declining receipts. For our year-to-date comparison, we are now only up 2.63% for the year to date compared to last year.
Now, since I am intellectually honest (unlike some City employees and hack lawyers), I will point out that although this is the August number, it is for receipts in July. What happened in July in Lampasas? We had a major water main break and quite a few businesses had to shut down for a day or two. That may account for a lot of this.
We can test this by looking at towns close to us who DIDN’T have a water main break.
Burnet: DOWN 2.62%
Hamilton: DOWN 1.0%
Marble Falls: DOWN 2.84%
I’d venture to guess our “real” number was more like down 2 or 3% and the rest is due to the water main break.
Other cities of interest:
Round Rock: DOWN 27.65% (!!)
Austin: DOWN 4.04%
Dallas: UP 1.9%