Keller reports $1.2M-$1.4M summer sales tax spike, continuing revenue growth trend

Rector said the city recognizes that this spike is likely to taper off in the future.

“We want to treat this growth as sustainable, and what we're seeing ... I don't think it's actually sustainable, but it’s creating a new base, which is a very positive thing,” he said.

Rector attributed the sales tax success to the growth of online sales and home improvement projects that began last year, and he said that restaurants are now bouncing back.

“It looks like the restaurants have generally come back from this time last year,” he said. “Their numbers are kind of matching to this time in 2019, which would have been a time when they were fully open. So it's good to see them getting back to that activity.”

Because sales tax allocations distributed in June are based on sales made in April, the numbers from June 2020 reflect sales during the first full month of COVID-19 restrictions in the United States. That month, the comptroller’s office distributed $690.4 million statewide, which the office said in a press release represented the steepest year-over-year decline since September 2009.

Rector said Keller’s sales tax growth will help the city deliver on one of its goals: providing property tax relief for citizens.

“When we’re planning out the 2022 budget, the growth in sales tax helped us kind of minimize and hopefully provide some relief to the citizens on property tax,” he said.