MIDLAND-ODESSA, TX (KWES) - Less people are spending money with the oil industry slow down. That means less sales tax money is coming in to Midland and Odessa. The latest numbers are in and they dropped quite a bit.
"Since sales tax is a consumption tax, it's something that people pay when they go out and buy things. It's actually a really good economic indicator for us to see what's going on in Midland. The unfortunate thing right now is that we're having an economic slowdown so the sales tax numbers are obviously reflecting that doesn't come as a huge surprise to us either," said Sara Bustilloz, Public Information Officer with the City of Midland.
In Midland, sales tax revenue is down almost 11 percent. In Odessa, more than 21 percent. That means a decrease of almost $7 million all together but the city of Midland wasn't caught off guard by this drop in sales tax revenue.
"We're not surprised because we always have to prepare for this. This is not our first rodeo. We are an oil economy and we know that when we start seeing the price of oil going down, we're probably going to see some of our sales tax come down as well," said Bustilloz.
They say they've dealt with this before, and this time around, they are looking at different ways to curve the hit to the economy.
"We're looking at different ways to diversify our economy so that when oil prices drop we aren't affected so much, but again this is what we do here in Midland , Texas," said Bustilloz.
