State Sales Tax Revenue Totaled $2.3 Billion In October

(AUSTIN) — Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said today that state sales tax revenue totaled $2.29 billion in October, 0.2 percent more than in October 2015.

“Opposing trends in consumer and business spending resulted in slight overall growth in state sales tax revenue,” Hegar said. “Continued declines in collections from the mining, manufacturing and wholesale trade sectors, reflecting the subdued level of drilling for oil and natural gas production, were offset by significant gains from retail trade and restaurants.”

Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in October 2016 was down by 2.1 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

Sales tax revenue is the largest source of state funding for the state budget, accounting for 58 percent of all tax collections. Motor vehicle sales and rental taxes, motor fuel taxes and oil and natural gas production taxes also are large revenue sources for the state.

In October 2016, Texas collected the following revenue from those taxes:

• motor vehicle sales and rental taxes — $396 million, down 4.6 percent from October 2015;
• motor fuels taxes — $299 million, up 2.1 percent from October 2015; and
• oil and natural gas production taxes — $224 million, down 6.9 percent from October 2015.

Note: On their own, natural gas production tax collections in October 2016 were 9.3 percent higher than in October 2015, representing the first year-over-year monthly increase since December 2014.