PRESS RELEASE: State Sales Tax Revenue Totaled Nearly $2.5 Billion in October

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November 2, 2017 

State Sales Tax Revenue Totaled Nearly $2.5 Billion in October

(AUSTIN) — Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said today that state sales tax revenue totaled $2.46 billion in October, 6.9 percent more than in October 2016. 

“Sales tax revenue growth was led by receipts from the mining and manufacturing sectors,” Hegar said. “Most of the other economic sectors, such as wholesale trade, retail trade, services and restaurants, also grew moderately compared to last year. In addition, Hurricane Harvey does not appear to have had a significant net effect on state sales tax revenue.”

Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in October 2017 was up 5.2 percent compared to 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. Motor vehicle sales and rental taxes, motor fuel taxes and oil and natural gas production taxes also are large revenue sources for the state.

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

• motor vehicle sales and rental taxes — $450.1 million, up 13.7 percent from October 2016. Those collections were boosted by the purchase of vehicles to replace cars damaged by Hurricane Harvey;
• motor fuel taxes — $311.1 million, up 4.2 percent from October 2016; and
• oil and natural gas production taxes — $288.6 million, up 28.9 percent from October 2016. 

For details on all monthly collections, visit the Comptroller’s Monthly State Revenue Watch.