La Grange Edges Into Black For 2024 Sales Tax Revenue

After gaining more than 17% in September compared to one year earlier, La Grange’s sales tax revenue for October was up more than 9% from the prior October. The two strong months of gains puts the city in the black again for 2024 to date.

So far this year, La Grange has received more than $2.26 million thanks to the 1.5% local tax on retail sales. That’s up about $20,000, or 0.8%, from the same 10 months of 2023.

Four of Fayette County’s seven towns show gains for the year. Carmine is up 11.9%, Ellinger is up 8.0%, Round Top is up 3.2% and La Grange up 0.8%.

The other three are down compared to last year: Schulenburg by 6.7%, Flatonia by 2.0% and Fayetteville by 39.3%.

County government also levies a local sales tax. That brought more than a quarter million dollars into the Fayette County treasury this month. The October rebate of $288,476 brought the county’s 2024 total to just under $2.7 million.

That’s down 1.3% from the same 10-month period of 2023.

Nine area counties impose the optional tax. This year has seen gains for six of them, while the other three are down. The greatest gain has been in Lee County, up 34.8% for the first 10 months, while the greatest decline was in Burleson County, down 11.8%.

Of the 25 towns tracked by the Record, sales tax revenue in seven of them has dropped in 2024 from last year. That is almost entirely due, however, to the recordhigh revenue received last year. Only three of the 25 are below their 2022 levels.

Fayetteville, for instance, had a huge boost in 2023, but has now dropped back to more normal levels, up a bit from 2021 and 2022.

Shiner’s boom is coming in 2024. Its revenue this year is nearly double what it had been in previous years.

Because Texas regards sales tax payments as confidential business information, it is not known exactly what causes unusual gains and losses in towns and counties. The state does release data on industries as a whole.

According to State Comptroller Glenn Hegar, total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in September 2024 was up 0.7 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

Sales tax is the largest source of state funding for the state budget, accounting for 58% of all tax collections, Hegar said.

“Sales tax receipts from sectors driven primarily by consumer spending were mixed, with collections from the services sector coming in above their September 2023 totals but remittances from the retail trade sector, the largest sector, decreasing 0.5%,” he reported.

“Receipts from restaurants increased from a year ago, though at slightly below the rate of inflation for food away from home for August.”