Round Top, Fayetteville See Biggest Growth in Sales Tax

September pushed La Grange past the $2 million mark for sales tax revenue this year and Schulenburg past $1 million.

For both that means a little more than a 2% increase from this time last year.

Two Fayette County towns are up by double digits, however. Both are magnets for antique-hunters.

Round Top has taken in $405,521 so far this year, up 17.1% and pushing its total above Flatonia’s, which is usually in third place for the county. Flatonia is up a respectable 8.8%, but not enough to keep its third place standing.

Fayetteville, where the antiques trade also flourishes, is up even more, with a 19.1% increase over last year at this time. Carmine is up 1.8%. Only Ellinger is in negative territory, with a 2.2% decline in city sales tax revenue as of September.

All in all, Fayette County’s retail sales gains are about average for the region. Nine counties in the area, including Fayette, levy the optional retail sales tax. Fayette County has received just over $2.5 million from it so far, a gain of 5.9% over last year. Four of the other counties have bigger increases; four have smaller increases.

Three of them, in fact, are actually down for the year – Colorado, Lee and Burleson.

The big gainer in the area is Austin County. Not only is the county up 38.8% from a year ago, but both its larger towns also have double-digit gains. Sealy has taken in just under $3 million so far, up 13.8% from last year, and Bellville, at just under $1 million, is up 13.6%. These are the largest increases among the 18 towns near Fayette County that are tracked by the Record.

Taxes paid by individual retailers are confidential, so

Local Sales Tax Revenues

First Nine Months of Year (Jan.-Sept.)

Fayette County Cities

Pct. Change Tax Rate 2025 2024 2023 2022 2024 to ’25 La Grange 1.50% 2,079,550 2,029,242 2,030,005 1,819,457 Up 2.4% Schulenburg 1.50% 1,037,571 1,007,963 1,102,563 934,653 Up 2.9% Round Top 1.50% 402,521 343,706 337,517 283,968 Up 17.1% Flatonia 1.50% 384,003 352,953 344,298 319,556 Up 8.8% Carmine 1.50% 124,087 121,793 106,757 113,348 Up 1.8% Fayetteville 1.50% 118,892 99,789 170,856 94,204 Up 19.1% Ellinger 1.00% 51,700 52,883 49,570 47,457 Down 2.2% 

Other Area Cities

Bastrop 1.50% 9,836,778 9,612,553 9,171,856 8,471,642 Up 2.3% Brenham 1.50% 7,862,861 7,590,652 7,152,765 6,820,232 Up 3.5% Lockhart 1.50% 3,741,488 3,401,945 3,021,132 2,678,411 Up 9.9% Elgin 1.50% 3,299,499 3,143,145 2,859,225 2,668,315 Up 4.9% Sealy 1.50% 2,991,538 2,627,920 2,565,672 2,324,488 Up 13.8% Gonzales 1.50% 2,518,685 2,335,363 2,397,854 2,356,053 Up 7.8% Giddings 1.50% 2,319,706 2,238,348 2,124,607 1,862,940 Up 3.6% Caldwell 1.50% 1,760,268 1,638,363 1,653,110 1,529,607 Up 7.4% Yoakum 2.00% 1,752,981 1,564,186 1,510,601 1,413,738 Up 12.0% Luling 1.50% 1,730,031 1,661,809 1,547,697 1,476,928 Up 4.1% Columbus 1.50% 1,633,709 1,618,341 1,579,231 1,420,815 Up 0.9% Hallettsville 2.00% 1,214,170 1,159,542 1,117,459 1,077,411 Up 4.7% Bellville 1.50% 973,567 856,611 841,985 776,748 Up 13.6% Shiner 2.00% 858,313 842,695 442,017 400,658 Up 1.8% Smithville 1.50% 712,093 664,306 654,149 669,521 Up 7.2% Weimar 1.50% 650,965 651,003 743,281 696,978 Down 0.0% Lexington 1.50% 326,750 324,120 328,343 303,090 Up 0.8% Eagle Lake 1.00% 317,846 313,115 316,569 294,639 Up 1.5%

County Governments

Bastrop 0.50% 7,328,666 6,629,870 6,230,629 5,874,029 Up 10.5% Washington 0.50% 3,668,969 3,485,298 3,574,792 3,200,621 Up 5.2% Caldwell 0.50% 2,996,235 2,795,939 2,631,885 2,155,612 Up 7.1% Fayette 0.50% 2,545,647 2,402,625 2,469,685 2,257,245 Up 5.9% Austin 0.50% 2,534,597 1,825,945 1,761,350 1,698,442 Up 38.8% Gonzales 0.50% 2,229,808 2,305,004 1,972,284 1,675,317 Down 3.2% Colorado 0.50% 1,932,635 2,089,793 1,659,871 1,466,843 Down 7.5% Lee 0.50% 1,497,954 1,552,627 1,209,564 1,140,082 Down 3.5% Burleson 0.50% 1,160,326 1,056,926 1,210,680 1,158,610 Up 9.7%

Source: State Comptroller’s Office exactly what is causing the strong gains in Austin County isn’t known. The State Comptroller only reveals the total rebates sent each month to each city and county.

For La Grange, this is the fifth straight year that sales tax revenue through September has increased from the prior year. Not since 2020, during the Covid shut-downs, has there been a decrease.

The Bastrop area is by far the region’s largest trade center. Areas outside the Bastrop city limits appear to be growing faster than those inside the city, however. As a whole, Bastrop County is up 10.5% from this time last year. The town of Bastrop is up only 2.3%, just under La Grange’s 2.4%. One high-profile development in the county but outside of the city is the SpaceX complex, located on FM 1209. Although the official headquarters of SpaceX is at the newly incorporated Starbase, Texas, its facilities in Bastrop County are expanding. When Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year announced a $17.3 million grant to SpaceX “for expansion of their semiconductor research and development and advanced packaging facility in Bastrop.”

Work is supposed to begin this month on an 80,000-square-foot expansion of the SpaceX offices on FM 1209. In addition, the Boring Company, also owned by Elon Musk, has facilities in the same complex.