City’s monthly taxable sales up again

In a memo to Mayor and Council last night, Austin Chief Financial Officer Leslie Browder once again had good news on sales tax collections. The city has received word from the state that the city’s sales tax revenue jumped from $11.2 million to $11.5 million, an increase of 2.9 percent over last year. Money received in June is from April sales.

 

That means that for the first seven months of fiscal year 2010, cumulative collections are up 3.2 percent compared to the same period last year, Browder reported.

 

Austin’s numbers are particularly impressive when compared to those of the other four major Texas cities. Only Austin and Fort Worth (2.3 percent) among that group experienced growth in April. Meanwhile, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas, along with seven other top 20 cities, reported declines in tax revenue.

 

However, Austin couldn’t compete with its neighbor to the near north. Round Rock was the only major city in the state to see a double-digit increase, 12 percent to be exact.

 

“Overall, the Austin/San Marcos MSA was up 3.7 percent this month and local results varied quite a bit,” Browder said. San Marcos experienced a decrease of 4.5 percent, while Sunset Valley was down 3.7 percent. Sales tax collections in Bee Cave were up 12.8 percent, and Capital Metro was up 1.6 percent for the month.