Fayetteville Surges In May Sales Taxes

Region Increasing Even Faster Than State as Whole

Last month, it was La Grange that got an unexpectedly high sales tax rebate from the state. For May, Fayetteville was the big winner. Big indeed.

Last year, Fayetteville got $11,567 as its share for May of sales taxes collected in town. This May’s rebate was more than six times that amount $72,619 for the month.

Because sales data for individual businesses is confidential, just what caused the huge increase isn’t known. Often, however, jumps like this occur because of a correction of a past error.

Regardless of why it happened, Fayetteville has received $124,458 for the first five months of 2023 – more than double last year’s revenue at this date.

Meanwhile, Round Top has also had rapid sales tax growth this year. It’s strong May check was enough to push Round Top ahead of Flatonia, becoming the third largest sales center in the county.

Schulenburg, the county’s No. Two town, has grown even faster than Round Top. Schulenburg’s city sales tax revenue is up 26.2% so far this year, compared to the same period of 2022. Round Top’s is up 24.0%.

While La Grange’s pace is a bit slower, it still is in double digits (13.4%), resulting in nearly $1.2 million for the city’s treasury so far this year.

Of the county’s seven towns, five have had doubledigit gains in 2023, while the other two have stayed about even. Ellinger is up by 4.7% while Carmine is down by 3.3%.

Overall, retail sales in South Central Texas have been strong this year. Of the 18 area towns outside of Fayette County tracked by the Record, all are up and nine have had double-digit gains.

Most cities levy a 1.5% sales tax, and counties can levy a half-percent tax. So far this year, that’s meant over $1.4 million for Fayette County’s treasury. That’s up more than $200,000 from this same point last year, for a gain of 16.5%.

Only one other area county has gained more. Caldwell County’s sales tax is up 18.8%.

Of the nine area counties that levy the local-option tax, eight have seen gains so far in 2023.

These have been considerably more than the state as a whole. State Comptroller Glenn Hegar reported that in May, he sent $1.2 billion in local sales tax allocations to taxing entities. Overall, Texas cities have received 7.4% more in sales tax revenue this year than last, Hegar said. Sixteen of the 25 area towns tracked by the Record had gains greater than the state average.