Business Booming In Tiny Fayetteville

With 2023 half over, towns in Fayette County are raking in big increases in sales tax money for their city treasuries.

Among them, though, Fayetteville is exploding.

Six months into the year, Fayetteville has collected more than twice as much sales tax as it had one year earlier. With $16,714 for June alone, Fayetteville is now at $141,373 so far in 2023, up a whopping 127% from $62,044 this time last year. Even so, it only ranks No. 5 among the county’s seven towns.

The exact source of the extra money isn’t known, though, since the state keeps individual merchants’ tax reports confidential. However, sales tax revenue is generally considered a good indicator of a town’s overall economy. If that’s the case, Fayette County and most of its towns are booming.

Five of the county’s seven towns are ahead by double digits or more. Among the nine area counties tracked by the Record, only two have increased by more than Fayette County.

Caldwell County is up 18.0% for the year and Gonzales County up 15.4%. Fayette County is up 14.6%, with just under $1.7 million going into the county treasury in six months. Only Bastrop and Washington counties in the area have taken in more dollars.

Besides Fayetteville, Schulenburg and Round Top are both up by more than 20% for the year so far.

Schulenburg, celebrating its 150th anniversary this month, has received over $745,000 so far this year, up 23.3%. None of the 18 area towns outside Fayette County tracked by the Record have grown so much.

Round Top has received nearly a quarter million so far this year, up 20.6%.

La Grange’s increase is 11.3% and Flatonia’s is 10.2%.

Ellinger, the county’s newest incorporated town, is up 7.5% for the year. Carmine alone has experienced a drop, down 3.5% from this time last year.

According to State Comptroller Glenn Hegar, the overall increase for Texas cities is 6.3% for this point in 2023. That puts six out of Fayette’s seven towns ahead of the statewide average.