LOCAL SALES TAX REBATES CONTINUE TO FALL
Local sales tax rebates continue to run behind last year’s pace.
This month’s rebate for the City of Brenham was $496,622, down 2.8 percent from the September of 2015 rebate of $510,978.
For the year, the city has received $4,619,092, down 3.8 percent from $4,799,858 in 2015.
In Washington County, this month’s rebate of $197,556, was down 5.2 percent from last September’s $208,356.
Payments for the year, total $1,949,398, down 3.7 percent from 2015’s $2,021,525.
Burton’s rebate for the month was $2,701, which is up 10.5 percent from last September’s $2,525.
Burton has received $28,280 this year, up 2.2 percent from 2015 at $23,174.
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said his office has sent out $629.2 million in local sales tax rebates for September, 1.4 percent less than in September of last year.
These allocations are based on sales made in July by businesses that report tax monthly.
One reason the local tax sales tax is falling, Is we do not have many places to shop for Things here in Brenham, I hear “Shop Brenham” all the time, But every time we go to College station to purchase something that cant be found here, We see at least 10 other people from Brenham also shopping, Those same people including us also stay in College station to eat dinner. lots of dollars lost to Brenham, So until Brenham gets places like Target, Kirkland’s, and other stores like these Brenham people will always shop elsewhere. And don’t say Brenham is not big enough to support these stores, If we can support Chilies’ and Lowe’s and home depot we can keep these other store in business as well. Why are these companies not being recruited here? That’s a question for our city leaders…
While I am very concerned about our local sales tax falling, I think our local businesses might want to look at their sales force. Within the past few weeks I have “shopped Brenham” and have gone into two businesses where the sales clerks were visiting with their friends rather than doing their jobs. They showed absolutely NO interest in helping me find the items I was searching for. In frustration, I left Brenham, drove to College Station and purchased the needed items. While I’m not saying that ALL businesses are like this, I do think it’s time that the local stores do more to make the customer feel valued rather than an interruption to the day. There’s a local furniture store that makes one feel like the most important person in the ENTIRE world while shopping there. Perhaps lessons could be learned from the young woman operating this historic furniture establishment!