Vermilion Parish has decline of $1 million in sales tax collection

In October of 2014, the parish collected $3.7 million in sales tax dollars. In October of 2015, the parish collected $2.7 million.
That is a $1 million decline in sales tax collection.
One does not have to search too far for the answer as to why.
The slowdown in the oil and gas industry in south Louisiana is the reason why.
When nothing moves in the oil and gas industry, that translates into nothing is selling in the oil and gas industry.
Decrease in sales means decrease in sales tax revenue.
Phil Sellers, the CFO of the Vermilion Parish School Board, informed school board members that the news was not too good when it came to sales tax collection.
Sellers told the board members that the decrease of sales tax dollars is attributed to one thing - the down fall in the oil field.
The loss of 30 percent of sales tax dollars is big for the school board, police jury and sheriff’s office.
The school board is down $300,000 for the month of October.
The police jury is down $343,000 and the sheriff’s office is down $172,000.
That adds up to a total loss of $515,000 for the school board, police jury and school board.
Municipalities are also feeling the effects.
The town who took the biggest hit in sales tax dollars is the Village of Maurice. Last year the Village collected $87,000 in October. This past October, the Village collected $48,000. The Village has an oil and gas company in it’s limits.
The City of Abbeville had a slight decrease of $25,000 or a loss of 7 percent ($275,761).
The Town of Erath is down 18 percent and collected $22,600.
Delcambre is also down 10 percent and collected $13,000.
Gueydan had a drop of 14 percent and collected $14,000. Kaplan is down only 4 percent and collected $54,700.
The Kaplan and Abbeville hospital districts are down 30 percent in collections.
With less people staying in hotels in Abbeville because of less oil field activity, the tourism commission is down 32 percent. The commission collected $3,700 which is $2,000 less than a year ago.