What happened, Jerry?

I thought the Super Bowl was supposed to be a big boon to our economy. I thought we'd be counting the proceeds for months. As it turns out, for the most part, metroplex counties didn't experience any big increase in sales tax receipts for February 2011 over February 2010. In fact, after showing a 25 percent increase in January over the previous January, Dallas County sales tax revenue decreased by that same percentage in February. (The month's I used are the month's actually reflected -- the proceeds aren't tabulated until the following month, so if you look it up, these are February and March figures). Tarrant County cities received modest increases of around 4%.

Now, according to Jeff Mosier of The Dallas Morning News, "Three months have passed since the first Super Bowl in North Texas, but that game is still top of mind for city and state finance officials who are counting the millions in costs." Dallas, Ft. Worth, Irving, and Arlington are due as much as $31.2 million from the state's major events trust fund. I suggest we send Jerry the bill.

"Cities file expenses for state to repay." The Dallas Morning News; May 14, 2011; p. 1B.