Small monthly dips continue on Gladewater sales tax allocation

After a string of fruitful months last Fall, the City of Gladewater’s monthly sales tax allocations are three-for-three in declining revenues for 2025.
It’s not a substantial sum – about $25,500 less than the $422,700 collected during the same three-month period last year – but it’s certainly a trend local leaders hope will reverse itself.
“We’ll pick some of it up,” Gladewater City Manager Charlie Smith said confidently.
Last week, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced his office sent $1.1 billion in March sales tax allocations to cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose districts. Overall, it’s a 10.2 percent statewide increase compared to March 2025’s numbers.
Notably, the combined allocations are based on sales made in January by businesses that report tax monthly.
In Gladewater, March’s share of taxes on local transactions in January is $118,134.02. It’s a 9.4 percent year-to-year decline from the $130,426.95 check City Hall received 12 months ago.
This follows a 4.5 percent dip in February – Hegar sent a $176,459 allocation to Gladewater, about $8,000 less than February ’24. Likewise, January’s allocation (based on sales in November) was 122,534.21, about 4.2 percent less than a year prior.
The preceding three months (October, November and December, based on sales in August, September and October, respectively) all showed year-to-year increases.
So, the recent dip is not necessarily a trend. Seasonal activity along with businesses opening or closing can have varying degrees of impact on the monthly sales tax allocations from the Texas comptroller.
For example, Sonic was temporarily closed and has since re-opened, Smith noted. A local convenience store was briefly shuttered but is now open and active again.
“Other than that, I don’t know what was affecting it,” he said.
Rough guess: since March’s check is based on January, locals and visiting customer traffic may have slowed a bit in the New Year after everyone paid out more for Christmas.
He’s anticipating a healthy – and consistent – boost once operations get underway at Cavender’s new distribution center here. (See separate story here)
“I hope we’ll see a big increase,” he added. “I think it’s going to help our community as a whole grow. There’s a lot of jobs fixin’ to come with that.”
In other local returns, White Oak saw a 43.14 percent increase in this month’s allocation, $169,325.33 compared to $118,286.94 in March 2024. Union Grove’s returns are typically smaller and, thus, more prone to large shifts – the community collected $580.58 in its March sales tax allocation, 27.16 percent less than the same time last year.