Local sales tax collections in Texas of $876.8 million distributed in August were 4% higher than those of the same month last year, Comptroller Glenn Hegar reported.
The August allocations are based on sales made in June by businesses that report tax monthly and on sales made in April, May and June by quarterly filers.
Local sales taxes are collected in Texas by cities, transit systems, counties and special purpose taxing districts. The special purpose districts showed the largest increase for August at 7.4% and are running 10.8% ahead of the comparable year to date in 2018. Cities, which account for the largest share of local sales taxes, saw a 3.8% increase to $567.8 million and are running 4.2% ahead year to date. Transit systems rose 3.9% to $190.5 million, while counties rose 3.4% to $53.7 million.
Statewide, sales tax collections of $4.1 billion through July are running 4.2% ahead of the same period last year, Hegar’s report said.
Among the state’s top 20 cities, all saw increases except three suburbs in the Dallas area: Irving, Frisco and Plano.
Houston, the state’s largest city, saw a slight increase, with revenues essentially flat for the year to date. San Antonio’s monthly total grew 2.74% with its year-to-date collections up 3.6%.
Dallas saw a 3.7% increase in the latest report and is running 5% ahead for the year to date. Austin’s 6.8% increase was tops among the top five cities, with growth of 6.42% year to date.
Fort Worth’s 2% increase for the month brings its year-to-date growth rate to 5.12%.
In the Permian Basin oil patch, Midland and Odessa continued their strong sales tax rate growth, despite a weakening oil and gas market. Midland’s 6% growth for August sustained a 14% annual growth rate, while Odessa’s 3.62% monthly growth brought the year-to-date growth rate to 9.05%.
On the Texas-Mexico border, the trade-intensive city of Laredo enjoyed sales tax growth of 3.99% in the August report, with revenues running 4.17% ahead of last year.
Brownsville on the southern tip of Texas saw monthly sales tax revenues rocket 9.4% with year-to-date revenues running nearly 4% ahead of last year’s totals.
El Paso on the western tip of Texas saw monthly revenues rise 6% for a year-to-date growth rate of 4.78%.
