By American-Statesman staff | Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 11:41 AM
The sales tax slump appears to be easing for the state and Central Texas cities.
Statewide, collections were down 8.8 percent in February, breaking an eight-month string of double-digit percentage drops, the Comptrollers Office reported Wednesday.
“Sales tax losses have begun to moderate,” Comptroller Susan Combs said, as she reported the state collected $1.6 billion in revenue last month.
In Central Texas, Austin and Round Rock both received higher allocations from the state this month for sales that occurred in January. Austin’s take of $10.1 million was up 1.8 percent from a year earlier, and Round Rock was up 0.6 percent, with an allocation of $4.8 million.
Of the 12 major cities in the region, only three had declines — Buda, Cedar Park and Kyle. Austin had a bigger increase last month, but that was because of a one-time adjustment by the Comptrollers Office, due in part to tax revenue that was due Austin but that had been mistakenly attributed to another city.
