Two of the Golden Triangle’s three largest cities saw increases in sales tax revenue received in March.
Columbus received $685,351 in general sales tax in March, up $53,601 (roughly 8 percent) from the same month last year. The city also received $130,930 from its restaurant tax, up $16,728 from March 2014; and $18,236 from its motel tax, up $4,800 from last March’s total.
Starkville saw record sales tax revenue in March, receiving $460,872. That’s up $23,727, or just more than 5 percent, from March 2014. The city received $142,777 from its restaurant sales tax, up $22,025 from last March; and $23,780 from its hotel/motel tax, up $12,940 from March 2014.
Cities’ March sales tax receipts came from January collections.
Columbus Ward 2 councilman Joseph Mickens credited the city’s retail recruitment for the sales tax revenue increase, as well as consumer dollars the city is capturing from employees and suppliers of county-based industries — namely those located at the Lowndes County Industrial Park.
He said continued growth could go a long way toward turning budget shortfalls, like the $300,000 shortfall budgeted for this fiscal year, into a healthy general fund reserve.
“I think Columbus is on the rise,” Mickens said. “Columbus is a beautiful city and a wonderful place to live. I’m looking for sales tax to keep going up…I’d like to get back to where we have millions (in reserve) in the general fund.”
In Starkville, January’s collections continued a solid run of growth since September, a run broken only by December sales tax collections that were virtually flat. Mayor Parker Wiseman credited sustained momentum from Mississippi State University’s historic 10-win football campaign in 2014 for the Starkville retail sector’s unprecedented good fortune.
“I don’t typically buy into the concept that big events, in themselves, affect sales tax all that much,” Wiseman said. “But it’s hard to argue with the impact that football success seems to have had on our sales tax growth. January is almost always the lowest sales tax month of the year, so I would anticipate all months moving forward will exceed January’s collections. My best hypothesis is this fits the five-month trend sparked by a transformative football season that is still serving as a catalyst for sales tax growth that will hopefully stick.”
West Point received $162,179 in sales tax this month, down $6,280 from its March 2014 collections. That number, though, according to Mayor Robbie Robinson, does not reflect a bond payment the city makes for a critical infrastructure project.
Robinson said the city borrowed more than $5 million in 2013 from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to rebuild a mechanical wastewater treatment facility. The city will repay that loan over 20 years, he said.
Initially, Robinson said the state took just more than $25,000 per month from its sales tax revenue, but after the project was finished last August, the payment doubled to more than $50,000. That means West Point’s sales tax collections for January actually increased by about $19,000 compared to last year.
Robinson credited new retail outlets and restaurants in West Point for helping that growth, as well as a palpable positive attitude among the city’s citizens about the future– through such developments as the new Yokohama Tire Plant being built.
“I’ve been very pleased,” Robinson said. “We’ve seen an upward trend just about every month.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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