Cough, sputter, splat: It's tobacco tax time!

Rep. Allan Ritter, R-Nederland, is a well-known "chaw-er" and dipper in the Legislature. Last session, he was not too happy when colleagues raised taxes on smokeless tobacco products. On Monday, Ritter vented to fellow members of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Garrett waves away the smoke: http://dallasne.ws/gNrvy0

Sales tax receipts up 6.6% last month

Good news, bad news. First the good: State sales tax revenue in October was $1.62 billion, up 6.6 percent compared with October 2009. And that's the seventh consecutive month of increases over a year earlier, Comptroller Susan Combs just announced.

Garrett has the good news. Garrett has the bad news. http://dallasne.ws/d5qqsw

Sales tax numbers finally moving up

Comptroller Susan Combs just announced the state collected $1.57 billion in sales tax last month, up by nearly 7 percent from a year earlier. "This increase is significantly larger than recent monthly gains, which have been in the zero to 2 percent range," Combs said. "Sales tax increases were posted across almost all sectors, including oil and gas, construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade and restaurants."

http://dallasne.ws/bbkbXb

It's official: TX sales tax $1.5 bil below estimate

Comptroller Susan Combs today announced state sales tax collections for the fiscal year just ended. As expected, they're not good: Receipts were about $1.5 billion below the $21.1 billion she estimated last November. Garrett reports: http://bit.ly/1Nj0PI

Combs: Economic recovery 'not yet in evidence'

Garrett:
Comptroller Susan Combs just announced that Texas' sales tax receipts for last month were up by 2.2. percent over a year earlier. The state's 6 1/4-percent sales tax generated $1.61 billion in June, compared with $1.57 billion in June 2009. "Total sales tax collections have now slightly exceeded year-ago levels for a third consecutive month," Combs said, citing the 1.4 percent increase posted in April and the negligible 0.1 percent uptick in May.
http://dallasne.ws/bO6OBd