LUBBOCK, Texas — On Friday, the Texas State Comptroller Office released numbers showing a 9.3 percent decrease in statewide sales tax from last year to this year.

According to state data, this is the worst decrease in revenue since January of 2010.

“The majority of April sales tax revenue is based on sales made in March and remitted to the agency in April,” a release stated. “Widespread social distancing requirements were not in place across much of the state until late March, meaning the impact of those measures affected only a portion of sales tax remittances in April.”

The release went on to say that next month’s report should show even steeper losses as that data will reflect the full impact of social distancing and the COVID-19 shutdown policies.

However, while over half of the top 20 revenue generating cities in Texas saw losses, Lubbock saw a slight increase from year-to-year.

According to state comptroller data, Lubbock’s sales tax revenue went from $5,291,854.35 in 2019 to $5,371,220.76 in 2020. That’s a 1.49 percent increase in revenue for the month of April.

Losing more than 20 percent of their revenue, Odessa was hit hardest out of the top 20 cities. With the widespread COVID-19 restrictions and the sudden collapse of oil prices, Odessa’s revenue went from $6,053,786.76 in 2019 to $4,827,043.55 in 2020, according to the state comptroller’s release.

State sales tax is the largest source of tax revenue in Texas. Because of this, declining sales tax revenues can be a lagging indicator of an economic slowdown or recession, according to the state comptroller.

The following is a portion of the state comptroller’s press release that explains several factors that led to the decreased sales tax revenues:

The effects of the March economic slowdown and falling oil prices were more evident in other sources of revenue in April 2020. Texas collected the following revenue from other major taxes:

  • motor vehicle sales and rental taxes — $164 million, down 45 percent from April 2019, the largest monthly drop on record in data going back to 1983
  • motor fuel taxes — $284 million, down 12 percent from April 2019, the steepest drop since 1991
  • natural gas production tax — $67 million, down 48 percent from April 2019
  • oil production tax — $191 million, down 45 percent from April 2019
  • hotel occupancy tax — $24 million, down 63 percent from April 2019, the deepest drop in data going back to 1990
  • alcoholic beverage taxes — $57 million, down 55 percent from April 2019. Declines were driven by mixed beverage gross receipts and sales taxes, both of which were down more than 58 percent. Excise taxes on beer were up 16 percent from April 2019, while wine excise taxes were up 9 percent from April 2019

For the full release from the state comptroller click here. For the data used in this article click here.