Retail sales this year may be off slightly going into the most important shopping season of the year in Temple, according to figures from the state comptroller's office.

Sales in Belton appear to be running ahead of last year.

The data are totals of sales tax allocations sent to the cities after being collected there by retailers and forwarded to the state.

The sales tax applied in Temple and Belton is the same - 8.25 cents on the dollar.

October allocations represent taxes collected in August, so it's still too early to analyze the sales for the first three quarters. February rebate totals show, though, that December 2008 sales were strong, even though the national recession started earlier last year.

If merchants see the same level of sales in the last quarter that they saw last year in Belton, they would still be running behind 2008 totals. The same is true in Temple.