August Sales Tax Allocations Decline

Although Brownwood and Early each saw positive numbers for last month’s sales tax allocations, August tax numbers were down once again.

Brownwood’s August sales tax allocations were down almost 4% compared to August of last year.  Early’s allocation for this month was down over 10% compared to the same month last year which is their largest decline in 2010.   This decline also brought Early’s year-to-date sales tax collections down by just over 1% which had been positive for the last few months.

Brownwood saw their first increase in sales tax revenue in more than a year last month.  Although August showed a decline, it is much less of a drop in sales tax revenue when compared to the beginning of the year.

Sales tax collections statewide were up by 2.2% to $1.69 billion compared to one year ago.

“Total monthly sales tax revenue has now exceeded year-ago levels for the last four months,” State Comptroller Susan Combs said. “Sales tax collections in major sectors such as retail trade, the oil and natural gas industry and construction are up from a year ago. We are monitoring these sectors to see if collections are returning to consistent growth.”

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

See full numbers below for Brown County cities.