Texas Comptroller Susan Combs reports that Texas merchants collected $1.6 billion in retail sales taxes last month on goods and services they sold. Of that amount $556 million was sent back to Texas cities where the taxes were collected.

Statewide the taxes collected were 2.2 percent higher than for July, 2009, indicating that consumers spent a little more than they did at this time last year.

In Raymondville sales were down 12.39 percent in July and are down for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2009 by 8.64 percent. So far this fiscal year the city has collected $778,686.60 as its share of the sales tax, down from $852,398.29 last year.

With just 2 months left in the fiscal year City Manager Eleazar "Yogi" Garcia expects that the city sales tax revenue will fall short of last year by $90,000 to $100,000. He has suggested cuts in the new budget to make up for the loss of revenue.

Lyford retail sales tax collections are down by 8.37 percent for the year. So far the city has collected just $25,547.85 in sales tax revenue for the current year.

Raymondville has a 2¢ sales tax while Lyford's sales tax is only l¢ per dollar. Lyford commissioners have discussed raising the tax to 2¢, which is what most Texas cities charge. It may take approval by the city voters to make the change.

With a new Dollar Store opening in Lyford this month it may be that the city's retail sales tax collecitons will double without an increase in the tax rate because Lyford has very few stores in which to shop.

Harlingen sales tax collections are down 6.51 percent for the year while Brownsville has a loss of 0.30% and McAllen has a slight gain of 0.12 percent.