How to read these numbers
Last updated: June 2026.
Grow NELA built this platform on a straightforward commitment: show the region's economic activity as the public records report it. We believe visibility and transparency serve Northeast Louisiana well. The figures here are presented as the parishes report them, without adjustment or spin. This page explains where the numbers come from and how to read them.
Where the numbers come from
The figures are sales tax collections reported by each parish's tax office or collecting authority. Grow NELA standardizes the formats and presents the results. We do not estimate, model, or restate the underlying figures, so what you see is a representation of the data we receive. When a parish provides a correction, we update.
Gross and net collections
Parishes report on one of two bases. Gross collections are the full amount before the collector's administrative fee. Net collections are the amount after that fee, as distributed to the taxing bodies. The fee is small, usually one to three percent, and it stays consistent within a parish over time, so a parish's own year-to-year trend reads the same either way. The basis matters only when comparing one parish's dollar total directly against another's.
The Meta era and “pre-Meta”
In late 2024, Meta announced its Hyperion data center investment in the region. We treat 2025 as the first full year of what the site calls the Meta era, and the years before it as the pre-Meta baseline. Several views compare a parish's recent pace against its pre-Meta average, the typical annual growth it ran in the years before the investment. This shows how much the picture has shifted, without attributing any single figure to the data center itself.
A few terms
- Sales tax collections. The sales and use tax dollars collected for a parish's taxing bodies, including school boards, police juries, sheriffs, municipalities, and special districts.
- Year over year. A period compared to the same period a year earlier.
- Quarter comparisons. Because the current year is only partly complete, we often compare the same quarter across years, such as the first quarter of 2026 against the first quarter of 2025, so both sides cover the same months.
- Pre-Meta average. A parish's typical annual growth rate across the years before the Meta investment.
- 2026 projection. Where shown, an estimate of the full year based on the quarters reported so far, scaled by how prior years split across the calendar. It is an estimate, not a final figure.
Why some figures show “n/a”
When an entity did not report for every month of a period, or began reporting partway through, the comparison shows “n/a.” A figure built on different sets of months would look like growth or decline that is really a gap in reporting. We would rather show nothing than a number that misleads.