September City Sales Tax Scores Win for LG Budget

La Grange ends its fiscal year on Sept. 30, and thanks to a big September payment, city sales tax revenue hit budgeted numbers for the year.

“It actually came in a little above projections,” said Jack Thompson, city manager.

That was due to a $236,549 rebate in September – a full 17% more than it got in September of last year. Thompson said that the 2023-24 budget called for about the same sales tax revenue the city got the previous year, which had been an alltime high.

“This coming year, we’re not going to be very aggressive in projecting sales tax. We’ll go for about $50,000 more than the past year.”

Like most city managers, Thompson has tailored a conservative budget.

For the calendar year, January through September, La Grange has received $2,029,242 so far in 2024. That’s almost exactly the same it got in the same period last year, which was $2,030,005. Ever since January, it has been running a bit behind last year’s pace. September brought it virtually even.

Most of Fayette County’s towns are running about even with 2023 collections. Carmine stands out with a gain of 14.0% over this time last year, while Fayetteville has seen a decline of nearly 42% from last year. That decline, however, is because last year was spectacular for Fayetteville. The 2024 total is still far ahead of 2022 or any previous year.

Fayette County levies the optional local sales tax, too. Of the nine area counties tracked by the Record, three have declines this year. Fayette County, with just over $2.4 million in revenue, is down 2.7%. Washington County, with $3.4 million, is down 2.5%. And Burleson County, with just over $1 million, is down 12.7%.

Bastrop continues to be the largest area county for retail sales. It has received $6.6 million in sales tax so far in 2024, up 6.4% from last year.

Sales tax for La Grange actually has two components. A tax of 1% is levied for the general fund, while a onehalf percent tax goes to the city’s Economic Development Corp. That division was specified in the election that was required to authorize a local sales tax. In effect, that means two-thirds of sales tax revenue goes into the city’s general fund, while one-third goes to its economic development fund.

Last year’s budget shows how important sales tax is to overall city operations. The general fund revenue budget for sales tax was $1,660,254, while property tax revenue totaled just $578,025, or about one-third what the sales tax produced.

“My first goal (for economic development) is to increase sales tax here in La Grange,” Thompson said. “After that, we will work on job creation.”