Bridge City merchants had strong sales in October as sales tax returns surged more than 18 percent compared to the year before. Orange County and the cities of Pinehurst and West Orange also had strong increases.

The sales tax incomes to cities and county were reported by the Texas Comptroller's Office. The office sends out the payments to the entities each month for sales two months earlier.

Bridge City, with a 1.5 percent sales tax, received $173,654 for the month, compared to $146,716 in 2021, an increase of 18.36 percent. The city ended the year with a total o $2.23 million, up from $2.08 million the year before, an increase of 7.08 percent.

Orange County, which has a 0.5 percent sales tax, collected $599,185 for the month, an increase of 13.14 percent from the $529,593 collected the same month last year. The county for the year received $7.29 million, an 11.74 percent increase from $2.52 million in 2021.

The city of Orange has a 1.5 percent sales tax and dropped slightly for the month of October with $460,614 compared to $474,758 for October 2021, a decrease of 2.97 percent. However, the city ended the year up 5.94 percent from last year with $7.236 million compared to $6.83 million the year before.

Pinehurst has a 1.5 percent sales tax and showed a large jump in sales for October with $55,026 compared to $44,729 last year, an increase of 23 percent.

Vidor with a 1.5 percent sales tax had a small increase in sales for the month, but was stagnant for the year. The city collected $264,663 for the month of October compared to $257,465 for October 2021, an increase of 2.79 percent. For the year, the city collected only about $3,000 more than last year with $3.54 million compared to $3.55 million last year.

The city of West Orange has a 1.25 percent sales tax and collected $111,909 for October, a 13.99 percent increase from the $98,167 percent collected for October 2021. The city for the year had $1.36 million, compared to $1.33 million last year, a 2.07 percent increase.

Emergency Services District 3 is the only special district in the county with a sales tax. The district is the Little Cypress Fire and Rescue Department and has a 1.5 percent sales tax that was approved by voters more than a decade ago. The district received $28,688 for the month, compared to $14,196 for October last year. The district ended the year by collecting $299,543 compared to $257,991 last year, an increase of 16.1 percent.