July sales tax revenue climbs for local cities

Sales tax revenues for the City of Clarendon rose more than two percent when Texas Comptroller Susan Combs delivered July allocations last Friday.

The city’s revenue from July collections was $33,025.97, which was up 2.3 percent from the same period last year. That brings the year-to-date figure to $203,525.24, down 0.4 percent.

Hedley’s rebate for July increased 6.85 percent to $888.24, but the year-to-date figure is still down more than 13 percent at $4,417.16.

Howardwick saw a big jump in its July sales tax revenues with a 180.35 percent increase to $2,514.74, which brings that city’s year-to-date figure to $8,693.18, up 10.56 percent.

The comptroller said the state collected $1.65 billion in sales tax revenue in July, down 11.6 percent compared to one year ago.

“Sales tax collections in July were again down significantly as major sectors of the economy, such as retail trade; oil and natural gas; and construction, remain weak,” Combs said.

“The sharp drop in revenue is a reflection of the current poor performance of these sectors as well as unusually strong sales tax collections in July 2008.”

Combs sent $544 million in August sales tax allocations to local governments, down 6.8 percent compared to August 2008. So far this calendar year, sales tax allocations to local governments are down 2.2 percent compared to this time last year.

Combs sent sales tax payments of $367.4 million to Texas cities, down 6.5 percent compared to last August. Calendar year-to-date, city sales tax revenues trail 2008 by 2.3 percent.

August sales tax allocations represent sales taxes collected in June by businesses that report sales taxes monthly, and sales taxes collected in April, May, and June by quarterly filers.

Due to the Labor Day holiday, the Comptroller’s next sales tax allocation will be delayed until Monday, September14.