Texas Comptroller Delivers First Local Sales Tax Allocations of 2009

Upshur County receives $63,000, Cities and towns share $131,000.

AUSTIN, TX Jan. 9, 2009 -- Comptroller Susan Combs announced today that the state collected $1.86 billion in sales tax revenue in December, up 2 percent compared to December 2007.

“State sales tax collections have grown 3.9 percent for the first four months of state fiscal year 2009,” Combs said. “Growth in overall collections has slowed compared to recent years, while remittances from key sectors such as construction and retail trade have declined.”

Combs sent cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts their first sales tax allocations of 2009 — $459.2 million, up 2.4 percent compared to January 2008.

Combs sent January sales tax allocations of $309.9 million to Texas cities, up 2.2 percent compared to January 2008. Texas counties received sales tax payments of $29 million, up 8.2 percent compared to last January.

In addition, $18.3 million went to 148 special purpose taxing districts around the state, up 23.5 percent compared to last January. Ten local transit systems received $101.9 million in sales tax allocations, down 1.4 percent compared to a year ago.

December state sales tax collections and January allocations to local governments represent sales that occurred in November.

Upshur County and Cities Tax Allocations

City / County	Current Payment	2009 Total	2008 Comparable	% Change
Big Sandy	$20.580.00	20,580.00	22,123.89	-6.97%
East Mountain	$1,742.38	1,742.38	1,702.35	+2.35%
Gilmer	$97,673.71	97,673.71	92,857.82	+5.18%
Ore City	$10,859.77	10,859.77	8,279.78	+31.16%
Union Grove	$215.43	215.43	517.56	-58.37%
Upshur County	$63,069.87	63,069.87	55,715.75	+13.19