Houston Business

Sales tax revenue numbers are beginning to roll in across the state and for once the news is better for small towns than it is for larger cities.

Stinger sales tax revenue numbers are beginning to roll in across the state.

And for once the news is better for small towns than it is for larger cities.

Our cash matlock joins us live in the studio with more on the story.

That's right joey.

Starkville, for example, reports a more than 13 percent drop in sales tax revenue for the month of april.

That by the way is much better than projected.

However, the city of houston says it has experienced a record áhighá for the same month.

The city of houston is in the middle of their new downtown beautification project.

Projects like this depend on city resources.

Some of those resources stem from things like sales tax revenue.

After the coronavirus pandemic, the initial thought was that these types of resources for the city could be lower than previous years.

"like everybody, we were really scared that the numbers were going to be down tremendously because of this covid outbreak."

Sean johnson is the executive director of the chickasaw development foundation.

He says this year, the county's tax sales revenue is at a record high.

"we had a 26 percent increase in our sales tax for the month of april."

Area businesses say, this is because people are choosing to stay home and shop local instead traveling to larger cities.

"well the first two weeks was slow doing the curb- side, but after that, i mean, it was just as if we were open.

400... 300 tickets.

I mean, it was booming."

"nobody wants to travel, and i mean, everybody loves no way jose.

The waitresses, the people, it's just a good atmosphere here."

Johnson says because of the positive numbers, the city will be able to move forward with renovations for the downtown square.

"we're re-doing our downtown with new sidewalks.

We've got a couple of new ordinances that we're putting into place, sign ordinances and keeping thru- traffic of big trucks out of downtown.

So these are meant to beautify and make the square a more pedestrian friendly place."

If all goes well, the project should be complete by the upcoming holiday season.

"the holiday shopping and the christmas parades and all that... that's kind of when we're wanting to see a brand new downtown or at least see in on the horizon."

Johnson says he hopes houston residents will continue to shop local.

"it's incumbent upon small towns to up their game.

Make themselves a place people want to visit and make themselves a place people want to shop, and that's what we're working on here in houston."

The city is also working to bring power lines and utility cables underground in the near future.