The latest sales tax collection numbers show the state collected $10.56 million in Austin last month. That's an increase of about 0.11 percent from the $10.54 collected in the same month last year. But it's substantially less than the $11.56 million in sales tax collected in Austin in November 2008.
The numbers suggest the Austin economy is more active than it was 12 months ago, but still has yet to recover from the pain inflicted by the national recession.
The last time Austin's sales tax numbers were this low was in 2005, when the state collected $9.9 million in local consumption levies.
The numbers are included in a report today by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs. In a news release, Combs lauds the 8.7 percent statewide increase in sales tax collections last month compared to November 2009. The release fails to mention, however, that the $1.84 billion collected last month is still shy of the $1.98 billion in sales tax generated in November 2008.
You can search historical sales tax data on the Comptroller's website.
