For an explanation of this table, click here. For questions not answered on the Explanation page, please contact Lewis F. McLain, Jr. at lfm@citybase.net. LFM.
Highlights:
The sum of all sales tax payments to City, County, Special Districts and Transit Authorities for the 12-month period ending July 2009 is $6,001,879,2120. That is a 2.28% increase over the comparable period ending July 2008.
To put the 2.28% increase into context, the following table shows the receipts and percent changes since 2000.
The rates of growth of sales tax increases have been falling since the end of 2006. When the rate of growth slows long enough or steep enough, the result will eventually be lesser collections than previously received. That is the case now as shown in the tables below.
The Top 500 sales tax entities in Texas received $5,773,119,569 or 96.19% of the $6,001,879,210 from August 2008 through July 2009. The net increase over the previous 12-months for the Top 500 is $124,673,760 or 3.24%.
However, the increase is better understood when the gains are separated from the losses. There are 352 entities with a total increase of $223,589,799. These gains were offset by 148 entities that collected $98,916,039 less for the 2009 vs. 2008 12-month period ending in July.
Of the $223,589,799 in gains, $43,508,490 came from Houston MTA and Houston alone.
Of the $98,916,039 in losses, $46,740,078 came from Dallas MTA (DART), Dallas, San Antonio, Austin MTA and Austin.
It must be noted that there are many reasons why some of the changes occur that has nothing to do with the economy. Entities can and do change their tax rates as allowed by law. Some are fairly new entities, a few that have significant sales tax collections. Therefore, the reader must be forewarned that there may be hundreds of stories embedded in these numbers that can be explained by the entities themselves.
Most governmental entities on the Top 500 list are on an October - September fiscal and record their November check as the last receipt of the year. Therefore, many cities have four more months to record. If they have been and are currently in a slowing or declining growth trend, it is very likely that the number of Top 10 entities to eventually collect less in fiscal year 2009 compared to 2008 will increase in number.
There are virutally no signs that the bottom has been reached regarding sales tax collections in Texas. LFM
