Revenue a mixed bag in Tri-parishes; some areas up, while others on the decline By MIKE BROSSETTE

Parish governments in Lafourche, Terrebonne and St. Mary have seen a spike in some areas of parish revenue recently.

Hotel/motel tax collections in Lafourche Parish increased 71 percent from January to July 2009 over the same period last year, said Ray Domangue, deputy sales tax collector for the Lafourche Parish School Board’s Sales and Use Tax Department.

The school board collects sales taxes and the 3 percent hotel/motel tax for Lafourche.

Hotel/motel tax collections so far in 2009 in Lafourche are $253,497. Last year’s total hotel/motel tax collections were $298,611. Domangue said the increase reflects oil and gas activity and hotel construction in the parish.

A new Hampton Inn and a Days Inn were recently completed in Thibodaux.

All revenue from the tax funds the Lafourche Parish Tourist Commission. Revenue from hotel/motel taxes also funds the St. Mary Parish Tourist Commission and the Houma Area Convention and Visitors Bureau in their respective parishes.

Terrebonne has seen a 4 percent increase in collections from the parishwide 8.5 percent sales tax through the first half of this year over the same period last year, said Christa Lagarde, director of the parish Sales and Use Tax Department.

Sales tax collections in June 2009 rose 10 percent over the same month last year in Terrebonne, but Lagarde said the department collected $2 million from audits, an unusually high amount.

“That’s dollars that should’ve been collected along the way over the past three to five years,” she said.

Normally the department takes in $100,00 to $150,000 in an audit collection.

Without collections from the audits, Lagarde said revenue for June 2009 would have been lower than June 2008.

“The increase is not because of an economic turnaround,” she said.

In St. Mary Parish, revenue from the occupational license tax has risen this year because the parish began collecting business license revenue from Franklin, said Barry Dufrene, director of the parish Sales and Use Tax Department.

St. Mary has collected $962,000 from the occupational license tax parishwide so far this year, compared to the $820,000 total from last year. Franklin has sent in $158,000 from the tax through July.

But total revenue from the sales, hotel/motel and occupational license taxes that the department collects is running behind last year’s amounts.

“Two thousand and eight was the best year we’ve ever had,” Dufrene said. “We’re running 10 percent behind for the year through July ’09 (compared to January through July 2008).”

Collections from the parishwide 8 percent sales tax are down 2 percent from the same time last year. Collections from the 4 percent hotel/motel tax are somewhat lower than last year as well. The department took in more than $307,000 through July 31 in hotel/motel taxes and $599,000 all of last year.

A La Quinta Inn was completed in Morgan City around a year ago. A Hampton Inn, also in Morgan City, and a Sleep Inn in Bayou Vista are under construction.

Sales tax revenue in St. Mary Parish is down slightly through July 31, 2009 compared to the same time period last year, from $25 million to $23 million, Dufrene said. Total sales tax collections last year were $42 million.

Besides Franklin, the department collects sales, hotel/motel and occupational license taxes for three other incorporated municipalities in the parish-Berwick, Patterson and Baldwin-and all areas in St. Mary outside of Morgan City.

The department also collects for the St. Mary Parish Council, school board, sheriff’s office and recreational districts.

The sheriff of St. Mary collects property taxes, as do the sheriffs of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.

The department distributes revenue to the agencies in the parish within a week of collecting the taxes, Dufrene said.

The Terrebonne Parish Sales and Use Tax Department collects sales and occupational license taxes for the parish government, school board and sheriff’s office.

Ninety-five percent of the funds are distributed to the agencies on the first of the month and the balance five to seven days later, Lagarde said.

“January and February were good months for sales tax collections,” she said.

March 2009 had a 3 percent increase over the previous March, but April and May saw decreases from 2008. The department received $56.9 million in sales tax revenue through June and $110 million total last year.

For occupational licenses in Terrebonne Parish, the department normally collects nearly all the tax in the early part of the year because businesses have to turn in the taxes by March.

The department collected $1.37 million in occupational license revenue through June 30 and $1.4 million all of last year.

“From now, the only ones we’ll collect from are new businesses,” Lagarde said. “We’re in a good situation but we will not collect a lot more this year.”

Half the revenue from occupational license taxes funds the Terrebonne Economic Development Authority.

The department also collects the parishwide 4 percent hotel/motel tax, which generated $537,000 through June and $1.09 million last year. The Houma Area Convention and Visitors Bureau sends 1 percent of the amount to the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center.

Campgrounds in the parish are required to remit only the hotel/motel tax, unlike inns that have to remit the entire 12.5 percent tax including parish and state sales taxes.

Lafourche is the only parish in the Tri-parishes that does not have a uniform sales tax rate.

Thibodaux and Lockport have 8 percent rates; Golden Meadow and south of the Intracoastal Waterway have 5.2 percent rates. All other areas of Lafourche are at 4.7 percent.

The Lafourche Parish School Board takes in sales and hotel/motel taxes for the parish’s incorporated municipalities (Thibodaux, Lockport, and Golden Meadow), the sheriff’s office and Lafourche Parish government, which collects occupational license revenue.

Domangue said the three municipalities all collected their own revenue at one time before turning over the responsibility to the parish.

He said the school board’s contract allows the department five days to distribute sales tax revenue to the agencies in the parish. The department also has five days to distribute hotel/motel tax revenue to the tourist commission.

In sales tax revenue through July, Lafourche received $40.4 million.

The parish took in $69.4 million in sales taxes total last year.