COVID-19 impact on Evangeline Parish sales taxes is released

The Louisiana State University of Alexandria College of Business released its most recent economic dashboard which shows the economic impact of COVID-19 on the Cenla area. The latest data reflects sales tax figures for the region.
According to the dashboard, “April sales tax revenue increased between 15% and 41% percent in Rapides, Avoyelles, Evangeline, and St. Landry which reflected overall sales activity in March, while vehicle sales tax revenue increased between 16% and 45% in those parishes during the period.”
A deeper crunch of the numbers shows Evangeline Parish collected sales taxes in the amount of $1,323,124 in March 2020 and $1,760,760 in April 2020. While there was a 33.1% increase from the last month, the figures are down -1.7% from the $1,371,683 collected in March 2019 and the $1,790,920 collected in April 2019. A look at the year to date sales taxes collected here in the parish shows an amount of $6,217,033 which is down -0.8% from the same time period last year. The April sales tax figures reflect activity in March, and the figures come from the Evangeline Parish Sales and Use Tax Commission.
Vehicle sales taxes in Evangeline Parish have also increased over the last month from $261,498 in March to $303,815 in April, which is up 16.2%. The numbers are, however, a -2.1% slide from last year when they were at $259,766 in March and $310,254 in April.
The dashboard also shows initial unemployment claims by parishes in Cenla. In Evangeline, there were 178 such claims on May 9 which is down from the 288 reported a week earlier.
As for the virus itself, according to the dashboard, there are 2.22 cases per 1,000 in Evangeline Parish. By comparison, there are 3.22 in Rapides and 10.85 in Catahoula.