A record almost $9 million in sales tax revenue was collected by seven Wood County tax entities during 2023.

The December report from the state comptroller showed six cities plus the county earned $8,984,378 during 2023, which is up almost 2% over last year when $8,811,071 was collected.

Five of the six cities plus the county collected more revenues than a year ago, while the city of Winnsboro continued to lag behind.

The county, Mineola and Quitman saw modest increases of less than 4% while Alba, Hawkins and Yantis saw double-digit increases.

The December rebate from the state represents primary sales made by retailers in October and reported to the state in November. The comptroller rebates cities and other entities their shares monthly.

Four cities saw their December income drop from a year ago – Alba, Mineola, Hawkins and Winnsboro, as well as Wood County.

The county collects a half-cent sales tax while the cities each collect 1.5%. On top of the state’s 6.25% tax, that makes the rate the maximum 8.25% inside cities and 6.75% elsewhere.

Alba ended the year with $338,302 in sales tax revenue for a gain of 11.23% over last year’s $304,139.

The monthly rebate for December was down just slightly from $32,623 last year to $32,447 this year.

Hawkins had a gain of 14.6% for the year with revenues rising from $408,419 in 2022 to $468,058 in 2023.

But the December rebate of $39,103 fell by 14.26% from last year’s $45,610.

Mineola tax revenues grew by 3.63% for the year to $2,817,560. It was $2,718,773 for 2022.

The December rebate for $271,193 was down 3.8% from last year’s $281,935.

Quitman received $82,873 in December for a 2.89% gain over December 2022’s income of $80,545. That brought the yearly total to $904,920, a 1.5% increase from $891,414.

Winnsboro received $139,649 for the month, some 2.85% off last December’s $143,739. That left the city 6.82% behind 2022 with revenues of $1,377,412 compared to $1,478,363.

Sales tax income for Yantis jumped by 23.46% for December with income totaling $14,134. It was $11,447 a year ago. For the year the city received $121,002 as its share, an increase of 20.4% from 2022 when it reached $100,508.

Wood County’s December rebate of $223,515 was off by 6.77% from December 2022 when $239,768 was received. The yearly total reached $2,957,121 for a 1.63% gain over 2022 when $2,909,452 came in.

The combined rebates for December were $579,401 for the cities, off by $16,500 from 2022. Combined with the county, the December rebates totaled $802,916, down from $835,680 a year ago.