Local sales tax rebates drop for December

AUSTIN – Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander last week sent local governments their final sales tax rebates for 2000, including $191.5 million to Texas cities and $15.7 million to counties.

Local rebates were down for Donley County communities. Clarendon’s rebate was down nearly 32 percent from this time last year for a total of $15,391.43. Hedley was down more than 32 percent to $197.24, and Howardwick dropped 37.70 to $722.83.

December’s rebates bring total sales tax allocated to local taxing entities in 2000 to $3.8 billion, a new one-year record for local sales tax revenue and an increase of eight percent compared to $3.5 billion in sales tax allocations in 1999.

Though 2000 sales tax rebates are up eight percent overall, rebates to local taxing entities for the month of December are down compared to December 1999, when local governments received extraordinarily large sales tax rebates, as the comptroller streamlined the process and made a year-end push to return every available local sales tax dollar to communities throughout the state.

This year, because of the steps Comptroller Rylander took to speed the monthly processing of sales tax revenue, local governments received more of their share of sales tax dollars sooner.

For the year, Clarendon’s rebate is up slightly by 0.83 percent. Hedley and Howardwick are both down for the year by 15.58 and 18.11 percent respectively.

The comptroller’s next sales tax allocation is scheduled for Friday, January 12, 2001.

For more information, visit  the comptroller’s website.