County’s Coffers Up Half Million Due to Sales Tax Revenue Growth

With three-quarters of the year passed, business in Fayette County seems still to be booming. Retail sales tax collections are up 32.3% for the first nine months of the year, surpassing virtually every neighboring county. (Burleson County is up 37.0%, but is considerably smaller than Fayette.) And Schulenburg seems to be where that business is hottest.

Its September rebate alone was up just under 40% compared to last September. Year to date, Schulenburg sales tax revenue is up 33.3%, a bigger gain than all but one of the 25 area towns tracked by the Record. (Shiner, the next to smallest of the 25, is up by 38.7%.) All towns in Fayette County are up for the year, but Schulenburg is up the most. A new truck stop that has resulted in a “gas war” among several outlets on busy I-10 may be responsible for much of the gains. La Grange had been showing double-digit growth, too, but its September payment saw a big drop. According to former City Manager Shawn Raborn, a tax audit by the Texas Comptroller’s Office found an error – apparently a misallocation. Sometimes that’s caused by a retailer coding sales to an incorrect town. When that happens, the next payment by the Comptroller corrects the error, increasing one town’s rebate and reducing the other.

La Grange’s September payment was $147,896, down 22% from last September’s $191,485.

Still, La Grange is up 8.8% for 2022, with revenue of $1.8 million so far this year, compared to $1.6 million at this point a year ago.

Carmine is up 18.5% for the year, Round Top up 15.4%, Fayetteville up 7.6% and Flatonia up 6.1%. Ellinger, the county’s newest incorporated town, has received $47,457 so far this year, while a year ago, it had not yet instituted a city sales tax.

Fayette County levies a onehalf percent sales tax, which has generated $2.25 million for the county so far this year. In this region, only Bastrop and Washington counties have taken in more this year.

Fayette’s gain is an impressive half million so far this year.

In nine months, it’s received $2.25 million in sales tax. A year ago, it was $1.7 million.

Exactly which businesses are benefiting from the increased sales isn’t certain. Sales tax data from taxpayers is confidential, so even city and county officials don’t know which merchants are collecting more taxes. But they do know the total rebates, and those rebates are growing. With new local budgets for the coming year now being adopted, the growing rebates are making them easier to balance.

Statewide, Comptroller Glenn Hegar distributed $1.04 billion to local governments in September. For nine months, all cities combined are up 15.0% from this time last year; counties are up 17.2%.