League City sees sales-tax ups and downs

The City of League City's sales-tax revenue dropped between calendar years
2009 and 2010, but remained safely above previous years' take.

According to the Texas Comptroller's Office, the city collected
$11,932,509.95 in sales tax in 2010, down from $12,466,772.87 in 2009.
That's a drop of more than half a million dollars. That number was
$10,358,170.04 in 2008 and $8,051,714.56 in 2007.

"It's certainly no secret and no surprise that it would have struggled a bit
between '09 and '10," says David Benson, League City's Chief of Staff. "You
have the hurricane, the near-meltdown of the world's financial markets, and
here you had, while they didn't materialize as feared, the NASA budget at
least inspired some concern with people."

Benson argues that businesses still have confidence in League City and the
Bay Area in general. He cited a recent car-sales event as an example. "When
Nissan rolled out the first Nissan Leaf in Texas, where did they go?" he
says. "League City, at Clear Lake Nissan."