By KRWG News
Texas – Texas sales tax revenue continued to decline in December, falling 11.6 percent from December 2008 levels.
Comptroller Susan Combs released the numbers Friday. She says the state collected $1.65 billion in sales tax revenue in December, continuing a declining trend dating to February. She says collections are down across most major sectors, including oil and natural gas, construction, manufacturing and retail.
Combs says she expects growth to return during the first or second quarter of this year. She sent January allocations of $274 million to Texas cities, down 11.4 percent from last January. Texas counties received sales tax payments of $24.3 million, down 16.1 percent from last January.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.