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San Antonio’s sales tax collections rose about 2% in July compared with a year earlier, despite the city collecting a lower sales tax rate than it did in 2025.
The state collects city sales taxes on behalf of San Antonio. The city is set to receive about $44 million.
Effective Jan. 1, San Antonio’s city sales tax rate dropped from 1.250% to 1.125%.
San Antonio trailed the state’s other largest cities in growth. Sales tax collections jumped 19% in Austin, rose 13% in Dallas and climbed 8% in Houston. Those cities did not have comparable sales tax rate changes affecting the figures.
Austin is set to receive nearly $35 million, while Dallas will receive $43 million and Houston nearly $91 million.
Jeff Webster, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said the increase was encouraging given the lower tax rate.
“Here's what these numbers tell me. San Antonio cut its sales tax rate this year, put money back in people's pockets and collections still went up. That means folks are out there spending with our local businesses and that's exactly what our members want to see,” he said. “Our consumers and our business community are both winning and that's the San Antonio way.”
The comptroller does not provide a sector-by-sector breakdown of San Antonio’s collections, but statewide sales tax revenue collected in August totaled $4.6 billion, about 7% more than in August 2025. Most of that revenue reflects sales made in July.
Statewide hotel occupancy tax collections rose 12% from a year earlier to $76 million. Visit San Antonio also reported strong local tourism around the Fourth of July.
“July showed considerable growth compared to last summer, reflecting the success of Visit San Antonio's summer marketing campaign,” said Mario Bass, president and CEO of Visit San Antonio. “Fourth of July weekend was the highlight week, with San Antonio ranking number 1 among other major Texas cities.”
From June 28 through July 4, the San Antonio metro area had a 70% hotel occupancy rate, compared with 58% in Austin, nearly 57% in Dallas and nearly 56% in Houston. On July 4, San Antonio hotel occupancy reached 93%, up from nearly 81% a year earlier.
Statewide, retail sales tax collections were 10% higher than a year ago, while collections from the service sector rose about 8% and restaurant collections increased nearly 4%.
Sales taxes are the largest source of funding for the state budget, accounting for 58% of all state tax collections.
