Official: Area lags behind in sales tax collections

Longview and much of East Texas continues to lag the state in sales tax collections, the state comptroller’s office said.

In Longview, July sales tax collections were down about 4.5 percent from the same period a year ago — a trend seen in many East Texas cities — even as statewide sales tax revenues continued to increase.

Statewide sales tax collections of $2.05 billion represented an increase of just more than 10 percent from a year earlier. It was the 28th consecutive month in which revenue has increased, the comptroller’s office said Wednesday.

Sales tax is an important source of revenue for the state, paying for a number of services ranging from schools to prisons.

“Business spending in the oil and natural gas industry and other sectors continues to be robust,” Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said in a news release. “That spending, along with increases in consumer sectors such as retail trade, continues to boost sales tax collections.”

But in Longview and much of East Texas the trend has been declining.

To read more visit our newspaper partner the Longview News-Journal. [2]