Restaurant receipts added to the state sales tax.
Sixty-two and counting… That’s how many consecutive months that sales tax collections in Texas have increased. State Comptroller Glenn Hegar this week announced that state sales tax revenue in May was $2.6 billion, an increase of 5.2 percent over May of last year. Hegar attributed some of the continued growth to increased spending at retail stores and restaurants. Although collections from the oil and gas mining sector declined due to decreased drilling, Hegar said that construction, wholesale trade and services sectors were also up significantly.
As a result of the sales tax collections, cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts will share $629.2 million in sales tax allocations for June, up 5.9 percent over the same month last year.
Cities will share $409.5 million, up 1.2 percent from June of last year, while counties will share $39.3 million, up 3.4 percent. An increase of 1.6 percent from last June to June of this year means transit systems will share $142.4 million. Special purpose districts saw an increase of 1.2 percent and will share $629.2 million. The sales tax figures represent monthly sales made in April and by businesses that report tax monthly.