Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced that the state sales tax revenue for October 2024 amounted to $4.01 billion, reflecting a 5.4 percent increase compared to October 2023. Most of the sales tax revenue collected in October is derived from sales that occurred in September and are reported to the agency in October.
The City of Brownfield experienced a 2.65% decline in sales tax revenue compared to this time last year, with collections decreasing from $148,886.03 in October 2022 to $144,930.06 last month. Despite this monthly decrease, the year-to-date revenue is still up by 10.40%, rising from $1,383,512.78 to $1,527,400.84.
Similarly, Terry County also saw a decrease in sales tax revenue compared to the previous year. The county reported revenues of $59,970.34, down from $88,188.28, marking a significant drop of 31.99%. Additionally, the year-to-date revenue for the county decreased by 4.53%, falling from $691,633.63 to $660,288.86.
Looking at the small cities in Terry County, the City of Meadow experienced a 14.78% increase in sales tax revenue from October 2023 to October 2024, rising from $1,686.62 to $1,935.92. However, Meadow’s year-to-date revenue saw a dramatic decrease of 77.16%, dropping from $92,333.92 to $21,088.53.
Meanwhile, the City of Wellman reported a 37.72% decline in sales tax revenue, with figures decreasing from $969.17 to $603.53. On the positive side, Wellman’s year-to-date revenue increased significantly by 158.46%, with the total for the year so far reaching $17,652.33, up from $6,829.68.
According to Hegar, October sales tax collections were significantly boosted by increased remittances from the retail sector. These collections exceeded those of October 2022, and overall state sales tax revenue grew more than twice the rate of overall price inflation. In sectors primarily influenced by business spending, the wholesale trade and manufacturing sectors experienced positive growth in the mid-single digits, while receipts from the construction and mining sectors fell.
Hegar said, “Among the sectors driven primarily by consumer spending, retail trade showed a gain of 5.5 percent compared with last October, representing the largest increase in that sector since April 2023. Within the retail sector, collections from online merchants, grocery stores and home improvement stores all grew significantly. The services sector was also up last month.
Hegar noted that receipts from restaurants remained largely unchanged compared to last year, falling well short of the inflation rate for dining out. For the three-month period ending in October 2024, total sales tax revenue increased by 2.4 percent compared to the same time last year. Sales tax is the primary source of funding for the state budget, making up 58 percent of all tax collections.
Texas collected the following revenue from other major taxes:
- motor vehicle sales and rental taxes — $605 million, down less than 1 percent from October 2023;
- motor fuel taxes — $324 million, up 2 percent from October 2023;
- oil production tax — $436 million, down 26 percent from October 2023;
- natural gas production tax — $182 million, down 5 percent from October 2023;
- hotel occupancy tax — $65 million, down 3 percent from October 2023; and
- alcoholic beverage taxes — $147 million, down 4 percent from October 2023.
