Saturday's Internet Edition, July 31, 2010.
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| Pictured above are soome of the Porsches that attended the last Porsche Rally held here. It is hoped that even more will be here for this Saturday's event. |
- The Carrera Region, Porsche Cars of America, car club is coming back to Van Horn. In their flyer, it is called “Vamoose Van Horn.”
The Porsches, mainly from the El Paso area, where the Carrera Region is headquartered, are expected to begin arriving here Friday evening.
On Saturday morning they will assemble at the Culberson County Airport for the day long Rally event. Drivers and their cars must first pass a technical inspection before they will be allowed on the “fast course.”
According to Lenny Loftin, the Rally chairman, spectators will be welcome at the Rally provided they remain in designated areas. Because of insurance requirements, spectators will not be allowed anywhere there might be a moving vehicle or on the Rally course itself.
Drivers are urged to make sure that their brakes are in excellent condition as well as tires due to the speeds they will see on the Rally course.
The Rally event is expected to conclude around 5 p.m. Saturday. It is our understanding that early drivers are going to make their cars available for viewing Friday evening in the parking lot of Hotel El Capitan.
Early voting underway for March 2nd Primary election
Early voting for the March 2nd Democratic Primary Election started on Tuesday of this week.
According to Linda McDonald, County Clerk and early voting clerk, her office has seen a steady number of folks coming in to cast their ballots early.
You may cast your early vote in the primary by going to the County Clerks office anytime during normal business hours to vote.
There is no early voting in the Republican Primary here in Culberson County.
Early voting continues until February 26, 2010.
While state sale tax down for January, Van Horn's is up
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said today the state collected $1.66 billion in sales tax revenue in January, down 14.2 percent compared to January 2009.
“Collections continue to be down in major industry sectors like retail trade, oil and natural gas production, construction and manufacturing,” Combs said. “January’s sales tax revenue was down by double digits compared to January 2009, which was the third highest collection month ever and was also the last month of year-over-year growth. We will continue to closely monitor sales tax revenue, and although we expect further collection declines in the near term, it is anticipated the rate of decline will moderate and then return to revenue growth sometime in the second quarter of 2010.”
Combs sent $618.2 million in local sales tax to Texas cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts, down 7.1 percent compared to sales tax distributions to local governments in February 2009.
But there is good news in this report for Van Horn. In our area, Van Horn was one oftwo towns with a positive sales tax numbers for the month.
Van Horn received $37,974.89 this month which is up 2.65% from what they received in this same period last year. For the year-to-date, Van Horn receipts are down 6.57%, however in our area, only two other cities are doing better.
Other area community year-to-date sales tax receipts are as follows: Alpine - down 7.61%; El Paso - up 2.2%; Ft. Stockton - down 29.88%; Marfa - down 1.2%; Midland - down 18.87%; Monahans - down 35.33%; Odessa - down 20.54%; Pecos - down 33.66%; and Presidio - down 7.48%.
January state sales tax collections and February’s local sales tax allocations represent sales made in December, and also include earlier sales by businesses that report sales tax to the Comptroller on a quarterly or annual basis.
The Comptroller sent $417.7 million in sales tax to Texas cities, down 6.2 percent compared to February 2009 payments. Texas counties received February sales tax payments of $35.1 million, down 15.1 percent compared to last February.
The 163 special purpose taxing districts around the state received $24.6 million in sales tax, down 7.8 percent compared to February 2009. Ten local transit systems received $140.6 million in February sales tax payments, down 7.5 percent compared to a year ago.
For details of February sales tax payments to individual cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose districts, locate the Monthly Sales Tax Allocation Comparison Summary Reports on the Comptroller’s Web site at www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/allocsum/compsum.html.