Which, of course, is good news these days. The July sales tax collection came in $200,000 over budget, about a 1 percent increase. That’s the fifth month in a row that revenue met or exceeded the budget. For the year, we’re down 2.4 percent from the budgeted figures.

With two months left in the fiscal year, we probably won’t make the budget. But that’s not surprising, is it? Also not good news: We’re on pace to collect about 2 1/2 percent less than in the 2008-09 fiscal budget, and that was the worst sales tax figure in five years.

The particulars: Our handy sales tax chart is here. The raw numbers are on the state comptroller Web site and are listed about two months ahead, so the figure given for September is money collected in July. The sales tax accounts for about 22 percent of the city general budget; another 43 percent comes from property tax receipts.