The Texas State Comptroller’s office released sales tax information and allocations for the month of October for cities across the state.

The allocations for October are a little mixed for the month as some local areas saw an increase while others went down.

Brownwood saw a drop of over 9% compared to October of last year and 3.67% year to date decrease as compared to the same time period in 2008.  These are very similar drops as last month.

Finance Director for the City of Brownwood Walter Middleton said, “This is the fourth straight month of declines which together have averaged about 7%.  This may be an indication that people are still being very careful with their purchases.  While we have been fortunate in Texas, and particularly in Brownwood, regarding the nationwide recession, it appears the local retail market is being affected to some extent.  August was also when we had the statewide sales tax holiday which was expanded this year.  That means we had some amount of exempt sales in 2009 that were taxed in 2008.  While this had some effect on the final numbers, the impact was probably not significant.”

Early & Bangs’ sales tax allocations showed an increase over last October.  Early had a drop last month but rebounded in October bringing its overall year to date allocation just slightly down compared to 2008.

Below is the sales tax allocation chart from the comptroller’s office for Bangs, Blanket, Brownwood, and Early with totals and the percent change.

City	Net Payment This Period	Comparable Payment Prior Year	% Change	2009 Payments To Date	2008 Payments To Date	% Change
Bangs	9,541.47	8,121.08	17.49%	109,238.37	103,085.12	5.96%
Blanket	485.25	831.36	-41.63%	11,552.07	11,154.06	3.56%
Brownwood	421,558.07	467,865.33	-9.89%	4,701,014.68	4,880,514.66	-3.67%
Early	79,549.66	74,459.33	6.83%	890,238.44	898,678.14	-0.93%