Cotulla tax revenues increase

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Late 2024 boost in retail sales, hotel bookings

The city of Cotulla collected more in sales and hotel occupancy tax revenues over the past month than at the same time last year, which administrators describe as encouraging for economic growth in the community.
According to the city’s interim accounting officer, the January disbursement of sales tax returns from the state of Texas to Cotulla stood at over $169,000, representing a two-percent increase over the same time in 2024. Those revenues are derived from sales taxes collected by retailers in the city – including some of Cotulla’s travel centers – in November 2024.
Jorge Flores made the presentation in his capacity as financial consultant in place of Ernesto Garcia III, who resigned from his position this month after accepting a banking position in San Antonio.
A four-month upward trend in the local economy, Flores said, is seen in the sales tax revenues from the beginning of the current budget year. The state has returned more than $754,000 to Cotulla since September, which represents a seven-percent increase over the same period in the previous fiscal cycle.
The city also collects a hotel occupancy tax on every room booked at nearly two dozen hotels, motels and boarding houses inside the municipal boundary, and those funds are used to enhance the city’s attraction to tourists, thereby further increasing hotel bookings and, by extension, retail sales in the community.
Flores reported that the December collections in hotel taxes for Cotulla stood at $72,000, “a significant increase over the previous month,” although some of those collections represented hotel booking surcharges from previous months.
For the first quarter of the fiscal year, Flores said, Cotulla has collected over $342,000 in hotel taxes. The figure falls in line with the city’s expectation of collecting more than a million dollars per year from hotel occupancy.
Projects undertaken with hotel tax revenues to date have included funding for the Main Street program’s downtown beautification, conversion of a disused garage into the present-day City Hall, and restoration of the former Stockmens Bank building on Front Street for use as conference space, council chambers and offices, as well as funding for local festivals.