On Jan. 7, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock announced that the Comptroller’s Office will distribute $1.2 billion in local sales tax allocations to cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose districts for January.
The allocation represents a 4.9% increase compared to January 2025. The distributions are based on sales made in November by businesses that report monthly tax. Cities will be the largest beneficiaries of these allocations, receiving $727.2 million representing a 4.3% compared to the previous year across the state. The cities receiving the largest portions of the funding include:
- Houston – $70.7 million.
- San Antonio – $39.2 million.
- Dallas – $35.2 million.
- Austin – $29.5 million.
- Fort Worth – $20.1 million.
Metropolitan Transit Authorities (MTAs) and city transit departments (CTDs) will receive the second largest amount from the Comptroller’s Office, totaling $242.9 million – a 4% increase compared to 2025. Systems receiving the largest allocations include:
- Houston MTA – $89 million.
- Dallas MTA – $71.3 million.
- Austin MTA – $33 million.
- San Antonio MTA – $17.7 million.
- Fort Worth MTA – $9.9 million.
Special purpose districts will receive $121.2 million. The allocation represents the largest jump out of all recipients compared to the previous year, totaling an 11.5% increase. Major recipients include:
- Fort Worth Crime Control – $9.9 million.
- Harris County ESD 9 – $6.1 million.
- Ector County Hospital District – $4.7 million.
- The Woodlands Transportation EDZ – $3.5 million.
- The Woodlands Township – $3.5 million.
The final $70.9 million will supplement county budgets, benefiting from a 3% increase in allocations compared to 2025. Counties receiving the largest amounts include:
- El Paso – $7 million.
- Midland – $5.8 million.
- Brazoria – $3.3 million.
- Lubbock – $3.3 million.
- Jefferson – $3.3 million.
January’s sales tax distributions build off December 2025’s $4.3 billion in state sales tax revenue. The state also collected significant returns from other major taxes, including motor vehicle sales and rental taxes, motor fuel taxes, oil production tax, natural gas production tax, hotel occupancy tax and alcoholic beverage taxers – resulting in a combined $1.7 billion.
Photo by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, from Wikimedia Commons
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