Allocations made to cities

A 1.8 percent decrease was seen in state sales tax collections in April of 2008 compared to April of 2007. The total sales tax collected in April is $1.7 billion.

Susan Combs, Texas Comptroller, said this is a small decrease compared to the growth seen last year in April.

"For the eight months of fiscal 2008 to date, state sales tax collections are up six percent compared to the previous year," Combs said.

The slower growth of the Texas economy this year is translating into sales tax growth below double digit numbers; last year's growth and the growth in 2006 reached double digits.

Combs said local governments will receive $554.4 million in May sales tax allocations. This is up 2.2 percent from May, 2007. So far this year, sales tax allocations to cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts are up 5.4 percent compared to last year.

The comptroller sent $377.7 million in May sales tax allocations to Texas cities, up 1.4 percent from last year. To date, city sales tax allocations are up 4.9 percent compared to the same time frame last year. Counties received sales tax payments of $32.4 million, up .8 percent from last year. Calendar year-to-date, county sales tax allocations are 5.2 higher than they were in 2007.

Also, $18.6 million was given to 127 special purpose tax- ing districts throughout the state. This is up 13.9 percent from last May. Ten local transit systems received $125.5 million in sales tax allocations, up 3.4 percent compared to a year ago.

May's sales tax allocations to local governments represent March sales that were reported to the comptroller in April by monthly tax filers and January, February and March sales reported to the comptroller in April by quarterly tax filers.

More information about these payments to cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose districts can be found at the Monthly Sales and Use Tax Allocation Comparison Summary Reports at www.window.state.tx.us/ taxinfo/allocsum/compsum.html.

The next sales tax allocation will be June 13.

In Henderson County, while Athens' monthly allocation is slightly less than last year at this time, Brownsboro, Chandler and Murchison are all ahead of the game.

Brownsboro received $11,070.16, compared to $8,976.17 last year. This brings the yearly total to date to $51,073.35, compared to $46,228.56 last year. The percent increase from last year's total to date is 10.48 percent.

Chandler's allocation was $46,662.29, compared to last year's $42,037.39; an 11 percent increase. Chandler's running total is $179,945.69, which is 8.08 percent higher than last year's total to date of $166,478.52.

Murchison's net allocation is $4,853.04, while last year's for May was $4,609.53. To date, Murchison has received $13,702.47 this year, compared to last year's total to May of $12,064.26