State, local sales tax collections improve for November

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced Nov. 12 that he will send cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts $890.5 million in local sales tax allocations for November, 4.8% more than in November 2019. These allocations are based on sales made in September by businesses that report tax monthly, and on sales made in July, August and September by quarterly filers.

According to the Comptroller’s comparison summary, net payments for November totaled $52,426,657.17 this year, representing a 1.54% increase compared to $51,632,396.30 last year.

Jefferson County’s November sales tax collections improved at a much higher rate than the state average. For November, Jefferson County collected $2,936,098.49 compared to last year’s collections of $2,680,060.66, representing a 9.55% increase in sales tax collections this year over last. Jefferson County is also up 2.71% annually for the year so far, collecting $30,570,232.97 this year compared to $29,761,262.89 in 2019.

Orange County’s sales tax collections have increased by an even higher percentage. The county reportedly collected $546,632.18 this November compared to $424,059.39 last year, resulting in an improvement of 28.9%. Orange County sales tax collected year-to-date is $5,271,810.37, 7.75% higher than last year’s $4,892,296.80.

While November’s sales tax collections are up in Texas, they are still down for the year overall. Payments year-to-date total $545,218,312.02 while last year’s payments during the same period were $550,934,655.21, representing a 1.04% decrease in collections for the year so far.