Slip in Odessa sales tax

For most of the past three-plus years, Odessa has lived the good life with continuous growth in sales tax numbers.

April 2009? Not so much.

April sales tax returns are down in Odessa, on the second time in 41 months that the sales tax check for a particular month wasn't larger than the check from the same month a year earlier.

The city received a sales tax check for $1,668,546.12 down 5.5 percent from April 2008's check of $1,765,797.39. Of the sales tax revenue, the city received $1,251,409.59, while the Odessa Development Corp. gets $417,136.53.

The Ector County Hospital District brought in $1,585,221.49 in October, a 6 percent drop from a year ago.

In area cities, 17 of 23 communities saw decreases in sales tax returns. Andrews was one of the area cities to see a steady decrease.

"Our numbers are so tied in with the oil - so it just depends on what that's doing," Andrews of-fice manager Debbie Gomez said.

Gomez said she doesn't study the numbers, but has noticed that numbers in 2009 are still doing better than 2007.

 By the numbers

Here is a look at April sales tax checks    for area cities and how the checks compare April 2008:

City                  Check                 Pct. Change

Alpine                $86,761.56              down 5

Andrews            $257,701.85            down 13.71

Big Lake            $87,931.92              up 13

Big Spring          $399,046.78            down 1

Crane                $43,533.91              down 5.8

Fort Stockton      $186,856.85            down 5

Goldsmith            $12,877.00              up 10.5

Grandfalls            $1,665.52                down 5.5

Kermit                $32,978.28              down 44.3

Lamesa              $90,569.58              up 6.8

Marfa                $19,770.19              down 10.3

McCamey          $21,356.83              up 2.5

Midland             $2,562,416.29         up 6.9

Monahans          $114,161.67            down 7.7

Odessa              $1,668,546.12         down 5.1

Pecos                 $91,814.53              down 44

Presidio              $24,946.89              down 21

Pyote                 $1,330.26                up 96

Rankin                $3,817.95                down 9.7

Seminole            $103,717.40            up 21

Stanton              $19,769.93              down 32

Toyah                 $542.52                   down 32.5

Wickett              $9,105.49                down 9.4

Wink                 $7,600.78                down 51.7