(AUSTIN)  *Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said today that state sales tax revenue totaled $2.44 billion in April, 2.5 percent more than in April 2016.

 

The modest growth in state sales tax revenue reflects increased business spending in some sectors, Hegar said. While net collections from oil and gas companies remain depressed, receipts from the manufacturing and wholesale trade sectors were up markedly. The results of consumer spending appear mixed, with increased tax collections from restaurants but a slight decrease in retail trade.

 

Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in April 2017 was up by 3.3 percent compared with the same period a year ago. Sales tax revenue is the largest source of state funding for the state budget, accounting for 58 percent of all tax collections in fiscal 2016. Motor vehicle sales and rental taxes, motor fuel taxes and oil and natural gas production taxes are also large revenue sources for the state. 

 

In April 2017, Texas collected the following revenue from those taxes:

 

 

  * motor vehicle sales and rental taxes  $222 million, down 11.2 percent from April 2016;* 

  * motor fuel taxes  $316.1 million, up 4.4 percent from April 2016; and 

  * oil and natural gas production taxes  $285.1 million, up 93.9 percent from April 2016. The            increase is due in part to refunds provided to natural gas severance taxpayers in April 2016,          which resulted in artificially low tax collections during that period. 

 

*Each spring, counties retain 5 percent of the motor vehicle sales and use taxes collected the previous fiscal year by the county as a commission. This takes place mostly in April, but in some cases, may continue through May and June. The large drop in year-over-year motor vehicles sales and use tax collections is due to more counties retaining that commission in April 2017 as opposed to last year. Collections are expected to return to their projected levels once counties have completed retaining their commissions from fiscal 2016.