Sales tax collection in Vermilion Parish stays positive despite COVID-19

Despite dealing with the COVID-19 for the last year, Vermilion Parish has not slowed down spending money.
The parish collected $353,195 more in sales tax this past January than last January.
For at least the second straight month, sales tax collection is up anywhere from 11 percent to as high as 23 percent in some municipalities.
In January, the Village of Maurice had a whopping 23 percent increase in sales tax collection.
The Village collected $67,472 or about $13,000 more than last year when COVID-19 was still overseas.
The city of Abbeville enjoyed the community spending money. The city collected 18 percent higher or $66,000 more than last January. The city collected $439,400 in sales tax in January.
The little town of Gueydan even saw a 22 percent increase in sales tax collection. The town collected $3,000 more in sales tax than a year ago for a total of $16,000.
Here is a list of other municipalities and government agencies and how much they collected in January:
• Erath: $22,630 (up 13 percent)
• Delcambre: $13,702 (up 19 percent)
• Tourist Commission: $4,319 (up 99 percent)
• Kaplan Hospital District: $103,772 (up 11 percent)
• Abbeville: Hospital District: $254,599 (up 12 percent)
•School Board: $989,473 (up 11 percent)
•Police Jury: $989,4777 (up 11 percent)
• Sheriff Office: $494,738 (up 11 percent)
The only city showing a negative in sales collection is Kaplan. Kaplan had a $10,000 drop-in sales collection in January.
The city collected $45,500, which is an 18 percent drop from a year ago.
Kaplan Mayor Mike Kloesel said the reason for the decrease is because a Kaplan business had been paying sales tax since 2016 on products not sold in Kaplan. The city had to reimburse the company for the sales tax money it collected since 2016.