La Grange Sales Tax Passes $1 Million So Far This Year
Round Top Shows Greatest Growth in County
Five months into 2026, retail sales in America are well ahead of last year, but that’s not necessarily resulting in increased sales tax revenue for Texas cities.
One of the biggest factors has been the price of gasoline. Americans are spending more for fuel, but since gas isn’t subject to the sales tax (it’s taxed by the gallon by both state and federal governments), retail sales taxes are not up at all in many places.
In Fayette County, four towns are up from last year while three are down.
La Grange this month passed the $1 million mark. As of its May payment from the state, La Grange had received $1,179,108 in local sales tax. That’s up 2.7% from the same time last year.
Schulenburg passed the half-million mark, with $572,712 to date. That’s up 2.8% from a year ago.
Round Top is the county’s only town with double-digit growth. It’s up 13.6% from last year. Flatonia is up 1.2%.
The county’s other three towns are down, however. Carmine has dropped 3.7%, Ellinger is down 4.4% and Fayetteville has plunged 27.2%.
Of the 18 other area towns tracked by the Record, seven have seen their sales tax revenue drop from last year. Most of them are by relatively small amounts, ranging from less than 1% to a little over 6%.
On the plus side, five area towns besides Round Top are up by double digits.
Sealy is up by an astonishing 93.7% from a year ago. It has received $3.2 million already in 2026 compared to just $1.6 million a year ago. Bellville, also in Austin County, is up 10.9%. Since the state doesn’t reveal information about individual taxpayers, just what has caused this surge isn’t known, but it has certainly impacted government treasuries there. Austin County itself has seen a 52.5% increase in its county sales tax revenue. That’s by far the greatest increase for any area county.
Fayette, Colorado and Gonzales counties are all down for the year. The biggest decline is Gonzales, down 35.4% for the five months.
Bastrop County, where residential, commercial and industrial construction are all booming, leads the region in sales tax. Bastrop County has collected $5.2 million so far this year, far more than twice second-place Washington County.
The relative importance of businesses outside the town of Bastrop’s city limits is seen in the county’s 31.6% growth compared to the city’s growth of 11.0%.
Statewide, the May allocation to Texas cities was up 4.3% from last year, according to the State Comptroller’s Office.