“Austin will collect $11.7 million in sales tax revenue from the state this month for sales that took place in November, up 6.2 percent from the same period last year, according to data released by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.”
Wow, that’s amazing!
Perhaps, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell should be running for president!
And if he were to run for president, I’m sure he would be polling above 5%.
Even with revenue forecasters expecting a $940 million uptick in tax collections in the upcoming budget year, spending on fixed costs in several major areas – Medicaid services for low-income and disabled residents, debt service, public pensions and collective bargaining agreements – are on track to easily swallow up those revenues and much more, said Jay Gonzalez, secretary of administration and finance.
“It’s heading in the right direction but we still have a ways to go to dig ourselves out of the hole of the recession,” Gonzalez said in a phone interview. “We’ve got some serious budget challenges.”
Gonzalez said the fixed costs, if left unchecked, would grow by $1.6 billion in fiscal 2013, the budget year that begins on July 1, outpacing tax growth by more than $600 million and cutting into revenues for other services. As a result, he said, the Patrick administration plans to unveil a raft of reforms to keep those costs in check. The rest of state government, he said, would see an overall reduction in spending, with limited increases and “many, many” programs level-funded, some slashed, and others eliminated altogether. Source
“Perhaps, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell should be running for president!”
He is going to waste all that revenue on a failed grren energy initiative.
On the Democrat ticket!