Fulshear CFO 'pleasantly surprised' by sales tax revenue jump from March sales

Unlike nearby cities such as Katy and Sugar Land, the city of Fulshear experienced an jump in sales tax payments during the early part of the coronavirus pandemic, according to new state data.

The city of Fulshear will collect $427,743.27 in sales tax revenue in May, a 10.2% increase compared to what the city collected in May 2019, according to figures released by the Texas comptroller of public accounts May 6.

The sales tax revenue cities will collect in May is based on sales that occurred in Fulshear in March. Social distancing guidelines and business restrictions were put in place in mid-March.

“I was pleasantly surprised as I think most of this is from the grocery stores and online purchases since we are participating in those sales now,” Wes Vela, city of Fulshear’s chief financial officer, said in an emailed statement. “This is just conjecture as we don’t the know any specifics at this point.”

Fulshear’s year-to-date data is also trending upward: The city of Fulshear collected $228,676 more—a 15.77% increase—for a total of $1.7 million in sales tax payments year to date in March 2019, according to the comptroller data.

Meanwhile, the city of Katy experienced a year-over-year decline of about 7% and Sugar Land saw a 9% drop in sales tax revenue in May, per the data.

The state of Texas as a whole generated sales tax revenue totaling $2.58 billion in March, which represents more than a 9% drop compared to last year, according to a May 1 news release by the Texas comptroller of public accounts.