Both Starkville and Columbus’ sales tax collections faltered this month, with Starkville’s dropping by 23.14% and Columbus’ falling 1.15% from June.
Year-to-date, both cities are still running ahead of their Fiscal Year 2024 pace.
Sales tax diversions run on a three-month window. Taxes are collected by retailers in the first month, sent to Mississippi Department of Revenue the next and then disbursed to cities and counties the third. Therefore, July reported collections reflect sales from May.
Starkville
Starkville collected $873,307 in sales tax revenue this month, marking a 23.14% decrease from last month’s collection of $1,136,300. Still, it is up 9.07% from July 2024 collections of $800,670.
Year-to-date, the city has received $8,727,789 in sales tax diversions, which is 14.38% increase from this time last year ($7,629,886).
The city is on pace to exceed its projected sales tax budget of $9.73 million by about $743,346.80.
Starkville saw an increase in month-to-month collections of both its restaurant sales tax diversions, which assist in funding for economic development and tourism, as well as its tourism sales tax diversions, which fund the Convention and Visitors Bureau as well as parks.
Starkville’s restaurant sales tax brought in $295,821 this month, up 2.22% from June ($289,375). This marks a 11.93% increase from last year’s July collection of $264,272.
Year-to-date, restaurant collections are up 4.76% with $2,734,280 collected so far this fiscal year, compared to this time last year ($2,609,814).
Starkville’s tourism tax brought in $172,082 this month, marking a 3.94% increase from last month’s collection of $165,547. This is a 13.65% increase compared to last year’s July collection of $151,409.
So far this fiscal year, the city’s tourism tax has brought in $1,559,812. This is a 4.9% increase from this time last year ($1,486,825).
Columbus
Columbus collected $988,933.32 in sales tax revenue this month, a 1.15% drop from last month’s collection of $1,000,465.78. This marks a 0.67% decrease from last year’s July collection of $995,696.25.
This month’s collections have Columbus projected to miss its $11,800,000 budget for sales tax revenue by about $179,828.
So far this fiscal year, the city has collected $9,683,476.58, marking a 0.95% increase from this time last year ($9,591,769.63).
The city’s restaurant and lounge tax brought in $239,407.35 this month, marking a 7.21% increase from last month’s collection of $223,288.33. This is up 5.83% from last year’s July collection of $226,206.91.
Year-to-date, restaurant sales tax collections are up 3.35% with $2,172,752.24 collected so far this fiscal year, compared to this time last year ($2,102,255.91).
The city’s motel tax brought in $39,406.22 this month, down 8.28% from last month’s collection of $42,966.37. This is a 2.59% decrease from last year’s July collection of $40,456.42.
Year-to-date, the city has collected $396,580.08 in motel tax revenue so far this fiscal year, up 2.48% from this time last year ($386,947.01).
The fiscal year for Starkville and Columbus begins Oct. 1. West Point’s fiscal year began July 1, marking the start of a new budget cycle.
West Point
The city collected $2,993,574.28 in its last fiscal year, which ended in June. This marks a 1.58% drop from its previous fiscal year collection of $3,041,778.23.
The city exceeded its projected sales tax budget of $2.8 million by about $193,574.28. It has a new projected budget of $2.9 million for this fiscal year.
This month, the city collected $218,701.84 in sales tax revenue, marking a 17.04% decrease from July 2024 ($263,653.33).
The city’s tourism tax brought in $37,986.67 this month, up 4.15% from last year’s July collection of $36,471.78.
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