Tommy Mann, Jr.
The Orange Leader
February 01, 2009 11:11 pm
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Comptroller Susan Combs announced earlier this month that the state collected $1.86 billion in sales tax revenue in December, up 2 percent compared to December 2007.
December state sales tax collections and January allocations to local governments represent sales that occurred in November.
“State sales tax collections have grown 3.9 percent for the first four months of state fiscal year 2009,” Combs said. “Growth in overall collections has slowed compared to recent years, while remittances from key sectors such as construction and retail trade have declined.”
Combs sent cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts their first sales tax allocations of 2009 — $459.2 million, up 2.4 percent compared to January 2008.
Combs sent January sales tax allocations of $309.9 million to Texas cities, up 2.2 percent compared to January 2008. Texas counties received sales tax payments of $29 million, up 8.2 percent compared to last January.
Despite a sluggish economy, all seven incorporated cities in Orange County showed marked improvement compared to the same time period last year.
The largest gain was the city of Orange, which received a net payment of $412,686.36 this month, or $186,000 more than January 2008.
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Vidor also showed a significant gain with its payment of $213,424.98, which is an increase of nearly 54 percent over this time last year.
The communities of Bridge City, Rose City and West Orange also showed gains of between 28 percent to more than 33 percent over this time in 2008.
Bobby Fillyaw, director of the Orange County Economic Development Corporation, was out of the office Friday and unavailable for comment.
In addition to the other state allotments, $18.3 million went to 148 special purpose taxing districts around the state, up 23.5 percent compared to last January. Ten local transit systems received $101.9 million in sales tax allocations, down 1.4 percent compared to a year ago.
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