‘Antiques’ Towns Show Biggest Sales Tax Gains
Six out of Fayette County’s seven cities have closed out 2025 with sales tax gains – three of them by doubledigit margins.
The biggest percentage gainer was Fayetteville. Its December payment pushed the year’s total revenue to $159,058, up 19.6% from last year. Even so, it ranked sixth among the county’s seven towns for revenue.
In actual dollars, Round Top had the most growth. Its 2025 total of $576,348 meant the bustling little town got over $84,000 more than last year. Round Top ranks third in the county in dollar revenue and was up 17.1%.
Carmine was up 13.8% for the year. These three double- digit gainers also are the towns most impacted by the big gatherings of antiques dealers each spring and fall in what some call “the greatest antiques show on the planet.”
La Grange, Schulenburg and Flatonia all had singledigit sales tax growth in 2025.
La Grange gained about $62,000 over last year, with nearly $2,776,000 from the local tax on retail sales. That was up 2.1% from last year.
Schulenburg was up 4.5% and Flatonia up 5.7%. Only Ellinger was down for the year, by 3.7%.
Around the area, of the 25 towns tracked by the Record, all but four saw gains in 2025. Fayetteville’s 19.6% gain was the greatest among them, followed by Hallettsville at 18.2%.
Bastrop continues to be the biggest retail center, netting just over $13 million in sales tax. That’s up 3.6% over last year. Burleson Crossing East is a shopping area nearing completion, just east of the Lowe’s store, and Sendero is being developed farther to the west on Texas 71, with the first buildings already going up.
Next is Brenham, with $10.5 million this year.
Nine area counties also levy the optional sales tax. Counties get a tax rate of one-half a percent, while cities generally get 1.5%. Bastrop County received $9.6 million in sales tax this year, while Washington County (Brenham) got $4.9 million.
Three of the nine counties were actually down for the year. Lee dropped by 6.7%, Colorado dropped 5.6% and Gonzales dipped 1.7%.