Dateline: December 20, 2007

City sales tax totals slip in 2007

AUSTIN – Stronger sales boosted tax revenue for the City of Clarendon last month, but the slight up tick was not enough to push the city’s yearly total into the growth column.

Data released Friday by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs show the city earned $21,728.57 in November sales tax revenue, which was up 1.51 percent from the same period last year.

The city finishes the calendar year with $297,117.04 in sales tax collections, down just 1.51 percent from last year’s total.

Howardwick was the only local city to post a gain for the year, coming out 4.29 percent ahead with $13,115.27 and showing growth of 30.26 percent this month with collections of $1,201.11.

Hedley’s figures, however, dropped 68.12 percent in November to $177.54, bringing that city’s yearly total down more than 29 percent to $6,943.68.

Combs said the the state collected $1.8 billion in sales tax in November, up 9.5 percent compared to November 2006. 

“State sales tax collections through the first three months of fiscal 2008 are up 6.6 percent compared to the same period last year,” Combs said.  “As the pace of the U.S. and Texas economies continues to cool, we expect the growth in Texas sales tax collections will continue to moderate.” 

Statewide city sales tax allocations during calendar year 2007 totaled $3.8 billion, up 6.9 percent compared to 2006. 

“The final sales tax allocation of 2007 brings the calendar year to $5.6 billion, surpassing last year’s local sales tax revenue by 6.9 percent,” Combs said.