Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said Wednesday that state sales tax revenue in April was $1.87 billion, up 11.4 percent compared to April 2010.

Beeville’s $303,097.30 rebate is a 21.79 percent improvement over the $248,852.07 payment the city received last May.

Bee County’s payment of $130,269.06 reflects an increase of 29.85 percent more than the $100,321.27 received this time last year.

Since January, the city has seen a 26.17 percent increase in its sales tax rebates, from $1,103,842.38 to $1,392,817.14.

Year-to-date figures for the county show that the comptroller’s office has sent payments totaling $565,291.32 to the courthouse. That is an improvement of 30.26 percent compared to the $433,956.26 Bee had collected from Austin by this time in 2010.

“This is the 13th straight month in which state sales tax revenue has increased,” Combs said. “Business spending in sectors such as the oil and gas industry helped boost sales tax collections. Tax revenue from retail spending also showed growth.”

Combs will distribute $600.1 million in local sales tax allocations on Friday, up 5.8 percent compared to May 2010.So far this calendar year, local sales tax allocations to cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts are up 7.1 percent compared to a year ago.

Combs will send May sales tax allocations of $403.4 million to Texas cities, up 4.7 percent compared to May 2010. Calendar year-to-date, city sales tax allocations are up 6.2 percent compared to the same period last year. Texas counties will receive sales tax payments of $37.4 million, up 11 percent compared to one year ago. Calendar year-to-date, county sales tax allocations are 12.6 percent higher than last year.

The sales tax allocations to local governments represent March sales reported by monthly tax filers and January, February and March sales reported by quarterly tax filers.