From the DMN Garland Blog:

Garland's sales tax losing streak ends at 16 months

12:02 PM Wed, May 12, 2010
Ray Leszcynski/Reporter
 
The news out of the state comptroller's office is a welcome change. Sales tax numbers are trending upward.
 
The news in Garland is pretty much in step with Dallas County, where numbers are up 5.8 percent for the month, but still down 2.8 percent on the year.
 
Bryan Bradford, the city's senior managing director in charge of the budget said a little more than half of the city's increase is from one-time adjustments and is not reflective of ongoing trends.
 
"However, this is the first monthly increase in 16 months," Bradford said in a statement. "Sales tax revenues are currently trending approximately 10.5 percent below their 2007-08 peak levels."
 
State Comptroller Susan Combs notes a modest increase overall in Texas, a welcome sight after 14 consecutive months of year-over-year declines. May's sales tax allocations to local governments represent March sales that were reported to the comptroller by monthly tax filers and January, February and March sales reported by quarterly tax filers.
 

 
For additional perspective looking further back, Bryan Bradford shares this information:

 
Sales tax collections for March 2010 were up 4.1% from the same month last year. While a little more than one-half of the 4.1% increase came from one-time adjustments, these are the first positive numbers we have seen in 16 months. Year-to-date sales tax revenues are 6.5% below last year and approximately 10.5% below their 2007-08 peak levels.
 

	March 2010 v March 2009	83,697	(4.1%)
	Less One-Time Adjustments	31,429	(1.6%)
	Year-to-Date	(859,506)	(6.5%)
	Decline from 2007-08	(1,446,247)	(10.6%)

 

 
Bottom Line: It's nice to see some reversal of bad fortunes but we are at best at the bottom of the trough and have a long way to go to recover to past revenue levels.
 
Some good news: Even though sales tax revenues are lower than last year or the year before, we are ahead of what has been budgeted. The city accurately anticipated having less sales tax money, thanks also to Mr Bradford and his department. Because we're a little ahead of what was budgeted, we're not facing some of the scrambles we regularly hear in the news from other cities nationwide.