Brookhaven’s sales tax numbers for October are significantlydown, but officials say there’s no reason to panic.

Officials said an audit-related adjustment that inflatedSeptember’s total to more than $574,000 was removed last month,thus accounting for the significant drop to $328,397.23 forOctober.

October’s total would have been $431,842.20, had the $103,444.97adjustment not needed to be made to make up for one local businessthat had an audit that has not been paid, tax commission officialssaid.

State Tax Commission Director of Communications Kathy Waterburysaid last month that a very large audit processed in the taxcommission’s automated system and was added to Brookhaven’s totalsfor September.

“We have automated systems, and the paperwork goes through andrecognizes the account is city of Brookhaven,” she said. “It’s partof some complicated formulas that lie within our computersystems.”

As a result, Waterbury said, the 37-month, half-million dollaraudit of a Brookhaven business was counted among Brookhaven’sreturns in September. It had to be taken out last month since ithas not been paid back.

“We saw that this large audit had processed and had not beenpaid so we had to back that out, and when it is paid we will add itback in manually,” she said. “We called the city of Brookhaven lastmonth and let them know what happened.”

At Tuesday night’s board meeting, Mayor Bob Massengill said theaverage of the two months would be around $451,000, which is stillabove the $425,000 per month in the budget.

“I will feel better when both of these abnormal numbers aregone,” he said, adding that the overall economy may influence thetax numbers in the near future. “We may find we need to cut somethings.”

Meanwhile, September’s total would have been $471,540.47 withoutthe extra money brought in by the audit.

“That number may have been up because of the hurricane (Gustav)traffic,” Waterbury said. “It’s really too early for us to havedone a good analysis on that.”

The sales tax report for October represents sales made incommunities in September.

Other Southwest Mississippi communities saw increases in theirtotals compared to this time last year.

McComb, which brought in $440,074.58 in 2007, was up to$467,383.63. Natchez also recorded a significant rise, from$413,268.32 in 2007 to $447,675.15.

Some Brookhaven officials expect coming numbers to fall. Theysaid the economy has taken a toll on the city’s usually lucrativecar market, which brings in quite a bit of sales tax.

“I expect the next check to be even lower, because October waslow nationwide,” said Ward Five Alderman D.W. Maxwell.

Meanwhile, officials continue to stress the importance ofshopping locally for the Christmas season, saying every dollarspent locally not only helps sales tax, but also helps localmerchants as well.