Local Economy Already Off To a Strong Start in 2023

“One swallow does not a summer make,” said Aristotle, nor does a single month foretell what the year will bring, but January’s sales tax receipts for area towns and counties at least meant more money in the bank for most of them.

Six of Fayette County’s seven towns got more sales tax money this month than the same month a year ago. One of them, Round Top, by a large amount.

RoundTop got $30,365 from State Comptroller Glenn Hegar as its January share of sales taxes collected inside its city limits. That’s up 137 percent from the $12,759 it got last January.

The gains of other Fayette County towns were more modest, yet all but Ellinger did see gains.

La Grange kicked off the year with a 3 percent gain, while Schulenburg was up 48 percent. Carmine was up nearly 11 percent, Fayetteville up nearly 9 percent and Flatonia more than 7 percent.

Ellinger got $4,249 for the month, down from $6,696 last January. This was only the 15th monthly check for the recently incorporated town. Its first check in November 2021 was for a mere $9.84. Since then, it has averaged about $5,000 a month.

Fayette County as a whole did well in January, too. Counties as well as cities are permitted an optional local sales tax.

Of the nine area counties that levy the tax, Fayette’s January revenue was up 21.6%, the greatest gain of any of the nine. It began the year with more than a quarter of a million dollars - $258,543. All but one of the nine, Austin County, had increases for January.

Of the 25 area towns tracked by the Record, all but six had increases.

According to Hegar, total sales tax revenue rebated to Texas cities in January was up 6.2% from the same month a year ago. County rebates were up 11.6%, he reported.