Sales Tax Down Compared To Last Year

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs recently said that the state collected $1.75 billion in sales tax revenue in August, down 12.5 percent compared to one year ago.

Van’s allocation of $45,227.75 was down 24.18 percent from the September 2008 payment of $59,651.43

Overall, for the year, Van has seen a 23.76 percent increase in total payments.

Payments through September have totaled $527,199.44 compared to last year’s $425,998.38 through the same period.

"We are seeing the overall effects of some new businesses in town. This month’s payment was down but we have been seeing a substantial increase over prior year’s payments," said Van City Administrator Gary McDaniel.

Combs said, "Monthly sales tax collections continue to decline as most major sectors of the economy, including oil and gas, construction and retail trade, continue to struggle."

"For fiscal 2009, which began in September 2008, state sales tax collections totaled $20.9 billion. Collections grew through January 2009, but monthly declines since that time resulted in overall collections dropping by 2.7 percent for the state fiscal year," said Combs.

Local governments received $428.3 million in monthly sales tax allocations, a 12.9 percent decrease compared to a year ago. So far this calendar year, local sales tax allocations are down 3.3 percent compared to the same period in 2008.

Combs sent monthly sales tax allocations of $290.3 million to Texas cities, down 12.2 percent compared to last year. Texas counties received sales tax allocations of $25.8 million, down 16.5 percent compared to a year ago.