By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – Texas Comptroller Susan Combs says state sales tax collections were $1.57 billion in September, up 6.8 percent compared with the same month a year ago.
The figures released Wednesday showed a larger monthly percentage gain than the state had been seeing recently.
Combs says sales tax increases were posted across almost all sectors, including oil and gas, construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade and restaurants.
Texas relies heavily on sales tax to fund the state budget. Collections have been sluggish because of the recession.
Major airlines oppose plane subsidies for rivals
Major U.S. and European airlines are banding together to oppose government loan guarantees that help foreign carriers buy Boeing and Airbus jets.
Delta, American, Southwest and British Airways are among the airlines protesting the loan guarantees.
A trade group for the U.S. airlines said Wednesday it plans to detail its case to U.S. government officials in the next few days.
The loan guarantees are designed to help Boeing and Airbus sell planes and create manufacturing jobs. But big U.S. airlines say they suffer because they don't get the loans but many competitors do.
Officials: Texas college student killed in Mexico
Officials say a south Texas college student has been shot and killed in Mexico.
University of Texas at Brownsville spokeswoman Amy Lynch said 19-year-old freshman Jonathan William Torres was killed Wednesday in Matamoros.
Lynch tells The Brownsville Herald that the university was trying to get more information from the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros, across the U.S.-Mexico border from Brownsville.
Officials say it is unknown whether the death was connected to ongoing drug war violence in Mexico.