Texas collected $1.58 billion in sales tax revenue in March, down almost 4% from March 2008.
Comptroller Susan Combs said the lower collections reflect continued weakness in several important sectors, including energy production, retail sales, and construction.
“While year-to-date sales tax revenue is up 1.9% for fiscal 2009, further declines are expected this year,” Combs said.
March state sales tax revenues represent collections from sales that occurred in February. The local share of sales tax revenue will be distributed in April.
Cities, counties, transit systems, and special purpose taxing districts will receive $410 million as their share of state sales tax revenue in April. That is a decline of 2.2% from April 2008, but so far in fiscal 2009 the allocations remain up by 1.2% from the same period in fiscal 2008.
The monthly allocations include $275.7 million to cities, $26 million to counties, and $16 million to 149 special taxing districts. Ten local transit systems will receive $92.2 million in sales tax rebates.
Austin posted the largest percentage decline among the top 20 cities in the state. Its allocation is off almost 15%, to $9.3 million this year from $10.8 million in April 2008. Houston will receive $35.1 million, down from $35.7 million last April, with Dallas posting an 8.3% drop to $14.4 million this month from $15.7 million in April 2008.
So far in fiscal 2009, Houston has received $175.1 million in sales tax revenue, up 5% from the same period in fiscal 2008. The sales tax revenue allocation for Dallas of $71.4 million is down 4.5% from 2008.
