Even though statewide sales tax collections for the month were up 2.2 percent over the same month last year, the City of Austin is receiving about $700,000 less than it did last August, according to Chief Financial Officer Leslie Browder. That’s a 5.2 percent drop.
Comptroller Susan Combs released statewide and local sales tax collection numbers on Wednesday, and Austin wasn’t the only major city getting bad news. Fort Worth also experienced a decline in collections. Meanwhile, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston saw increases for the month.
Browder explained the situation in an email to the mayor and Council Wednesday, “We received $12.8 million this month compared to $13.5 million in August 2009, a decrease of 5.2 percent,” she wrote. “We received a negative audit adjustment this month of $491,000 and when compared to the same month last year, in which we received a positive audit adjustment of $441,000, these two factors tended to drive our percentage down this month.”
So, while painful, the latest report — which represents money collected in June — does not indicate a trend. Browder pointed out, “Absent these adjustments, our sales tax revenue would have been up 3.3% this month, which represents current period collections as reported by the State Comptroller.”
Browder said that on a cumulative basis, for the first nine months of fiscal year 2010, Austin’s collections are up 2.6 percent compared to last year.
Asked whether this situation might have a negative impact on next year’s budget, Budget Officer Ed Van Eenoo said budget office employees had projected a 3 percent overall growth rate in sales tax and the city is not far behind that right now.
However, Austin got $14.5 million in sales tax collections in August 2008, then $13.5 million in August 2009 and $12.8 million this year.
In other regional tax-collection news, Round Rock was up 29.1 percent for the month. They received a prior period adjustment this month that totaled close to $1 million. San Marcos, with its heavy retail, saw an increase of 4.1 percent. Sunset Valley, which also has a lot of retail, reported relatively flat revenue, while collections in Bee Cave were up 10.7 percent and Capital Metro were down 7.3 percent.