Clarendon sales tax figure slips for August

Clarendon’s sales tax revenue is still struggling according to August allocations released last week by Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar.

The city received $31,208.37 for the month, down 4.73 percent from the same period one year ago.

The sales tax figures represent monthly sales made in July.

That brings Clarendon’s calendar year-to-date figure to $292,541.06, which is a drop of 0.41 percent from the same point in 2014, which was $293,767.79.

Howardwick’s numbers were also down by 7.03 percent at $1,117.66, bringing that city’s revenue down 2.49 percent for the year-to-date at $9,821.31.

The City of Hedley’s revenue was down 49.07 percent at $256.65. For the year-to-date, Hedley is down 21.75 percent at $4,396.70.

Statewide, Hegar said that state sales tax revenue in August was $2.6 billion, down 0.4 percent compared to August 2014.

“The slight decline in sales tax revenue was due to reduced receipts from oil and gas-related sectors, offset by growth from other sectors,” Hegar said. “Higher collections from retail trade, restaurants and services indicated continued growth in consumer spending, while receipts from construction also grew.”

Along with his monthly sales tax allocation announcement, Hegar released totals for overall state revenues, as well as some of the state’s most significant revenue sources. All Funds revenue for the year finished at $109.5 billion, 0.2 percent less than the $109.7 billion projected in the Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE).

General Revenue-related revenue was $52.6 billion, 0.1 percent ahead of the BRE projection of $52.58 billion. Sales tax revenue for the year was 0.6 percent below estimate, at $28.9 billion. The BRE forecast was $29.07 billion.

Oil production and regulation tax revenue came in 4.2 percent above the BRE forecast, while natural gas tax revenue was 20.6 percent below estimate.

“State revenues for fiscal 2015 came in very close to the amounts we projected in January before the legislative session,” Hegar said. “As we predicted, the Texas economy has seen moderate growth despite weakness in the energy sector. The accuracy of our fiscal 2015 estimate provides a firm foundation as we begin to prepare the Certification Revenue Estimate.”