While the United States struggles against its worst economic atmosphere in decades, Pflugerville is flourishing.

While other cities raise tax rates in order to continue providing basic city services, Pflugerville has been lowering its tax rate for the past five years.

As other cities cope with businesses shutting down, Pflugerville has been luring new businesses to town with tax incentives.

And as other cities rolled through the budget process this year, many city employees knew there would be no money for raises or for new personnel in their departments. Here, the city added personnel, including five police officers, in September as its population continues to grow.

A very hungry caterpillar, indeed.

“We’ve had just incredible growth,” Mayor Jeff Coleman said as third-graders from Dessau Elementary filtered out of the Walmart Supercenter on FM 685 that opened in 2007. “Starting with this Walmart, frankly, we started building a commercial base we didn’t have prior to that.”

A shortfall in projected spending for a detention pond project put a dent in the city’s current budget, but the situation seems only a temporary setback, in light of the city’s gains in recent years.

In 2000, the city brought in only $807,676 in sales tax revenue. But in the past fiscal year, the city took in four times that amount – $3.2 million in sales tax, and the city is anticipating another $3.8 million coming in during the current year.

Pflugerville’s prosperity has fueled by Central Texas’ population growth, which has made cities such as Cedar Park and Leander among the fastest-growing in the nation. Here, the population has skyrocketed from 16,335 in 2000 to more than 52,000 this year.

And with that have been parallels in sales tax revenue and the property tax rate.

Key to that climb in sales tax revenue have been openings of big box stores, such as the Walmart, Home Depot (in 2008) and Stone Hill Town Center’s Super Target months ago. Other stores and restaurants in still-burgeoning Stone Hill have also contributed, including Best Buy and Firestone.

Long lines of shoppers snaked in front of Best Buy before its opening in February – getting the development ball rolling this year –  while representatives from the city, chamber and multiple organizations saw red aplenty as Target opened in March.

In October, chamber officials smiled happily as one of the largest crowds the city has ever seen turned out for the Firestone ribbon-cutting, highlighted by the appearance of famed race car driver Mario Andretti, who signed autographs and posed for photos with fans for hours.