|
Sales tax holding somewhat steady |
|
Thursday, 19 November 2009 |
By BRIAN HAWKINS
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Starkville’s year-to-date sales tax collections for 2009 are slightly down as compared with 2008, but are more or less holding steady and will likely rise before the end of the year, officials say.
The latest figures released to city officials from the State Tax Commission this week reflect the first nine months of 2009; it takes two months for the Tax Commission to process the revenue and report the figures to municipalities.
Through September, Starkville businesses have collected $3,801,196.85 in sales tax. The figure is a slight drop as compared to the first nine months of 2008, which saw $3,811,621.25 in sales tax collected, a difference of $10,424.40.
For September, Starkville businesses collected $442,673 in sales tax. For the year to date, Starkville is seeing an average of $422,355.21 in sales tax collected each month.
While the year-to-date and monthly average figures are down slightly from 2008 levels, the fact that sales tax collections are holding somewhat steady in the midst of the national recession is good news, said Jon Maynard, president and CEO of the Greater Starkville Development Partnership.
The year-to-date sales tax collections reported by the Tax Commission don’t reflect much of Mississippi State’s football season, nor do they reflect the recent local changes allowing Sunday alcohol sales, Maynard said.
“We have had some huge days with football season, particularly in October,” said Maynard. “I think Sunday sales and the football weekends will be a factor in boosting collections when we get the figures next month.”
Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman made similar comments to the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority board of directors Monday evening.
In addition to the MSU football season attendance, Wiseman on Monday also noted the boost in student enrollment at MSU as another factor that will help the city’s sales tax base grow. Starkville’s city government derives roughly a third of its general fund budget from sales tax revenues.
Heading into the holiday shopping season next week, Maynard said it is critical to support local businesses.
“We need to take care to keep spending money locally and to keep money in Starkville,” Maynard said. “Solid sales tax collections help us recruit more businesses that we want in our community, especially when we can show them that we’re holding our own even in the middle of a recession.”
One tax definitely seeing a marked increase in revenue is the 2 percent restaurant and lodging tax, which is recorded separately by the Tax Commission from the regular sales tax.
The latest figures show that the first nine months of 2009 have seen a total of $999,423.74 in restaurant and lodging taxes collected, with $122,560.34 collected for September of this year alone.
That marks an increase over the first nine months of 2008, which saw a total of $976,038.07 in restaurant and lodging tax collected, according to figures from the State Tax Commission.
To date for 2009, local restaurant and lodging tax collections have risen by $23,385.67 over the same period in 2008.
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 20 November 2009 )
|
