Austin, Round Rock sales tax collections up

Local sales tax collections continued to climb last month, according to figures released by Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar. Austin’s net payment this month was more than $18.7 million, compared to last year’s September payment of about $16.5 million. For the first eight months of the year, Austin sales tax collections have increased about $10 million, from more than $158 million in 2017 to more than $168 million so far this year. City spokesperson Andy Tate explained that the increase might not be as great as it appears because about “half of the growth was from prior period collections.” Some retail outlets do not pay on time, he noted, so when they do pay it looks like a bigger increase for the month than it actually is. Round Rock has seen an even greater percentage increase. Last year, the comptroller reported August sales tax collections in Round Rock of about $5.8 million. This year, Round Rock collected more than $7.3 million for August, bringing the year’s sales tax total to more than $62.3 million. At this time last year, Round Rock had collected about $53.3 million. That’s a yearly increase of nearly 17 percent, according to the comptroller’s calculations.