Yesterday, Dallas Morning News reporter Ray Leszcynski posted on the DMN Garland Blog that Garland sales tax collections were at a four-year low and today the DMN had a similar article revealing a similar situation in most area cities. The blog report showed Garland down 9.8% from last year and the lowest since April 2006. Today's article reports that collections were down 11% across the state. Some area cities, including Richardson, Plano, and Allen, did better than last year.
 
The numbers available yesterday to the DMN were preliminary. The city received final numbers today. Garland is actually down 11.9% from one year ago.
 
The drop in Garland doesn't come as a surprise because we've been trending that direction for a while. The Budget and Research Dept has done an excellent job forecasting revenues and tracking us to budget. Through November (fiscal year started Oct 1), actual collections have been over $3.4 million. We are $43,897 above budget.
 
The drop is not welcome news but it's close to what was projected.
 

UPDATE: The hazards of comparing data that differs by minor time periods and being preliminary or final are risky. Bryan Bradford, budget and research director, shared this additional information to help better frame the picture:
 

 
The latest DMN article references sales tax receipts received in January 2010 – which is for transactions made by consumers in November 2009. These numbers will be reflected in [our report] in February.
 
Below is what the numbers will reflect:
 

	Total Sales Tax YTD:	$4.96 Million
	Decrease from same period last year:	$624,000 (11.1%)
	YTD:	$86,000 (1.8%) above budgeted projections

Current trends reflect that annual Sales Tax revenues have declined $3.0 million a year or 12.8% from pre-recession levels.
 
For November 2009 Transactions, sales tax collections declined $157,000 (9.4%).
 

 
Bottom line: While the decline is not welcome, lower collections are not negatively impacting the budget.

 
UPDATE 2: Figure from November, 2009, Dashboard Report indicates sales tax collections tracking closely with budgeted amounts: