The City of Kingsville’s share of March sales tax delivered here Friday is 15.74 percent less than the same period last year.

Kingsville was allocated $249,837.55 compared to $296,522.74 for the same month last year.

So far, Kingsville has received a total of $923,569.06 in sales tax revenue this year, compared to $994,578.61 for the same period last year for a decline of 7.13 percent.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said the state collected $1.60 billion in sales tax revenue in February, down 8.8 percent compared to February 2009.

On Friday, Combs delivered $404.4 million in March sales tax payments to Texas cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts.

State sales tax revenue collected for February and paid in March to local governments represent sales that occurred in January.

The City of Bishop did worse than Kingsville.

Bishop received $11,435.75 in sales tax revenue for March compared to $13,695.46 last march for a decline of 16.49 percent. Year-to-date sales tax revenue for Bishop stands at $37,964.17 compared to $42,999.28 for the same period last year for a decline of 11.70 percent.

Driscoll received $2,793.34 compared to $3,226.87 last March for a decline of 13.43 percent. Year-to-date revenue is $9,298.51 compared to $9,915.68 last year for a 6.22 decline.

Statewide, sales tax allocations are down 6.7 percent compared to March 2009. So far this calendar year, local sales tax allocations are down 8.4 percent compared to the first three months of 2009.

Kleberg County received $90,122.95 as its March sales tax allocation compared to $103,571.58 last March for a decline of 12.98 percent.

Year-to-date revenue is $335,857.22 compared to $371,856.08 for a decline of 9.68 percent.

“After eight straight months of double digit declines, sales tax losses have begun to moderate,” Combs said. “Sales tax revenue continues to be down in major sectors such as retail, oil and gas production and construction. However, there was a slight uptick in the manufacturing sector. We will keep monitoring the revenue, and as we have recently noted we expect further declines in the near term before a return to sales tax revenue growth later this year.”

Combs sent March sales tax payments of $271.3 million to Texas cities, down 6.8 percent compared to March 2009.

Texas counties received sales tax payments of $24.4 million, down 11.2 percent compared to one year ago.