September Sales Tax Allocations Decline

Cities in Brown County continue to see decreases in sales tax revenue as the state releases numbers for September.

Brownwood had a decrease in sales tax allocations for September dropping just over 4% compared to September of last year.  This makes Brownwood almost 7% down for the year in sales tax revenue so far.

The City of Early also saw a decline in sales tax allocations for September which dropped just over 9% compared to the same month in 2009.  Both Brownwood and Early experienced an increase in revenue just two months ago which has steadily dropped off since then.

Brownwood should approve its proposed budget for the next fiscal year later this month which is slashed by over $750,000 due to the expected decrease in sales tax revenue.

Statewide, sales tax numbers saw a slight increase.

“Monthly sales tax collections continue to slightly exceed year-ago levels. While some major sectors including oil and gas and manufacturing were up, other sectors including construction and retail trade dropped from the previous year,” said State Comptroller Susan Combs. “For fiscal 2010, which began Sept. 1, 2009, collections declined through the first seven months of the year, often by double-digit percentages, but the modest increases during the last five months resulted in an overall decline of 6.6 percent for the fiscal year. Overall, state sales tax collections appear to have stabilized, but solid growth has not yet resumed.”

Combs will send monthly sales tax allocations of $298 million to Texas cities, up 2.7 percent compared to last September.

See local sales tax number below.  The sales tax figures represent sales that occurred in July.