Texas Comptroller Susan Combs announced that state sales tax revenue in April was $2.07 billion, up 10.9 percent compared to April 2011.
“Sales tax revenue has now increased for 25 consecutive months. Recent strength in sales tax collections continued in both business and consumer spending categories,” Combs said. “Growth was led by the oil and natural gas-related sectors, while significant gains also came from retail trade and restaurants.”
Combs will send May local sales tax allocations totaling $633 million to cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts, up 5.5 percent compared to May 2011.
For details of local sales tax allocations in May to individual cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose districts, locate the Monthly Sales Tax Allocation Comparison Summary Reports.
In regards to jobs, an interactive site in the Texas Tribune shows a loss of 10,200 state employees in the last year.
In regards to overall job growth in Texas, a recent speech given by Richard Fisher, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, used several slides to illustrate the strength in Texas’ economy which showed, among other things, that job growth in Texas has outperformed Australia, Canada, England and Japan. More details on the slides and speech: http://www.dallasfed.org/news/speeches/fisher/2012/fs120511.cfm.
The trends of improved state revenue seem to be holding which is good news for Texas. Projections show that there will still be a gap of about $10 billion between available revenue and the demands for state funding driven by growth in the state’s population.