Cline Shale Area Tax Revenues for June

Over the last few months I've noticed that Abilene Reporter-News (ARN) has done a good job of reporting on the sales tax revenues from some of the municipalities in the area of the Cline Shale.  But those familiar with the area should notice they don't report on ALL of the cities in and around the Cline.  Most notably they leave out Midland, San Angelo, and Roscoe (and maybe Lubbock is worth mentioning too).  With a population of about 1300, it's no major offense that Roscoe wasn't included in their report, but it does seem odd that ARN decides to include much smaller towns like Robert Lee, Roby, and Mertzon.  The latter two towns are smaller than Roscoe by half.  Curious.

Anyway, I'm going to take what ARN reports and include the approximate populations of the towns to give a better frame of reference.  My conclusion about this data is below - but I'll save you the time - this data shows nothing really significant.

Increase/Decrease in Year-Over-Year Sales Tax Revenue

Abilene (pop. 118,100) - up 0.78%

Big Lake (pop. 3,000) - down 4.13%

Big Spring (pop. 27,400) - up 3.70%

Colorado City (pop. 4,200) - up 18.78%

Mertzon (pop. 800) - up 84.27%

Robert Lee (pop. 1,100) - up 11.73%

Roby (pop. 700) - down 6.5%

Snyder (pop. 11,200) - down 1.01%

Sterling City (pop. 900) - up 9.73%

Sweetwater (pop. 11,000) - up 8.55%

My conclusion about these numbers is similar to that of the previous month's report, which I blogged about two posts ago.  This is a mixed bag of data, and it is obviously too soon in the development of this formation to see major effects of drilling operations.  Sure, Mertzon's 84% increase is likely due to drilling activity, but how much activity do you think it takes to move its' needle?  Less than a thousand people live there.  If by chance a tour bus stops in Mertzon for lunch one month, that could result in an 84% increase in sales tax.  I kid.  But seriously, one thing to keep in mind when reading these numbers is that Texas in general has a strong economy and there are many factors at play on the economics of these municipalities, not just the oil industry.

Here is the original ARN article this data was taken from.

And if your interested, here is ARN's article on May's sales tax receipt data, and here is the one for April.

I see a spreadsheet and some data-tinkering in my future.