DATA: April sales tax allocations are in for Pearland, Friendswood

Despite the coronavirus shutting down businesses for over a month in some cases, the city of Friendswood received a larger sales tax allocation this April than it did in April 2019.

The data, which was released in June by the Texas comptroller, shows that the city collected $686,871.58 in sales tax allocations from the state in April, over 12% more than the year before. This is despite April being the first full month of business closures in the state.

Not only did the city collect more in April than it did the year before, the percentage increase year over year was the largest for 2020 so far. However, the city collected the most in sales tax allocations in March so far this year, despite that being the first month when businesses closed due to COVID-19.

The city of Pearland collected less sales tax revenue in both March and April of this year, though the loss was greater in March than in April. Year-over-year allocations in March were down by 3.89%, but allocations were only down by 1.98% in April.

In April, the city of Pearland collected $2.4 million in sales tax allocations, compared to $2.45 million in April 2019.

For both Pearland and Friendswood, February is the month the cities collected the least in sales tax allocations for 2020. January was the only month the city of Pearland saw a larger sales tax allocation than the year before. Friendswood received less sales tax in January and February than the year before but received more in March and April of this year compared to 2019.

There is a two-month lag from when sales tax is collected from businesses to when it is distributed to cities. The numbers on the following charts correspond to the months the sales tax was collected and represents, not the months the data was made available.