State sales tax revenue posts year-over-year decline

​​​AUSTIN – State sales tax revenue totaled ​​$2.57 billion in September, 6.1 percent less than in September 2019, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

The majority of September sales tax revenue is based on sales made in August and remitted to the agency in September.

Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in September 2020 was down 2.5 percent compared with the same period a year ago. 

Sales tax is the largest source of state funding for the state budget, accounting for 60 percent of all tax collections. The effects of the coronavirus-related economic slowdown also were evident in some other sources of revenue last month.

Texas collected the following revenue from other major taxes:

• motor vehicle sales and rental taxes – $454 million, up 4.3 percent year over year (YOY);

• motor fuel taxes – $294 million, down 9.7 percent YOY;

• oil production tax – $227 million, down 31.9 percent YOY;

• natural gas production tax – $71 million, down 28.1 percent YOY;

• hotel occupancy tax – $34 million, down 36.9 percent YOY; and

• alcoholic beverage taxes – $78 million, down 33.7 percent YOY.