Two years after COVID-19 shutdowns resulted in several months of losses from sales and hotel occupancy tax flowing into government coffers, The Woodlands Township saw sales tax gains 25% above budgeted amounts for the first three months of 2022.

As of the financial report presented at the March 30 board of directors meeting, sales tax revenue in The Woodlands was about $3.6 million, or 25.4% higher than the budgeted amount for the year to date.

Total revenues for the first two months of the year—not including March—were $63.18 million, which is $6.94 million above the budgeted amount as of Feb. 28, according to the financial report.

In the first two months of the year, hotel occupancy tax was 112% higher than it was at the same time last year, at about $993,000 as of Feb. 28. For the year to date, it is $12,575, or 1.3%, below the budgeted amount of about $1.01 million.

The increases come after a year in which economic recovery began to take shape after 2020, when revenue was affected by retail and hotel shutdowns during the early stages of the pandemic.