As city leaders research ways to boost revenue, State TaxCommission statistics indicate the city is missing out on its shareof $2.5 million in unpaid sales tax dollars in the area.

The $2.5 million amount is out of assessments of $5.6 million inunpaid taxes found during field audits on various tax-payingentities within the Brookhaven District.

Officials said that amount comes from cases being investigatedover the last year and a half. The Tax Commission investigatesunpaid taxes and attempts to collect the money owed the state.

State Tax Commission Director of Communications Kathy Waterburysaid last week that 18 and a half percent of the $2.5 million salestax amount would be city diversion, or money that would be givenback to the city. That comes to roughly $462,500.

Mayor Bob Massengill said every dollar of sales tax is importantto Brookhaven. He said the sales tax since October, when the citystarts its fiscal year, is down 5.4 percent compared with a yearago.

“How much of that is attributable to this matter I don’t know,but obviously the city depends on sales tax as a major source ofrevenue,” he said.

Massengill went on to say that it’s not only the city governmentthat suffers when tax dollars are lost.

“Anytime anything happens to lessen that revenue, we cut back onservices or programs, which is not just going to affect thegovernment, but the citizens as well,” he said.

Waterbury said their records for the Brookhaven District do notinclude audits on businesses that have home offices or accountingdepartments outside the state, but that money spent there does gotoward city sales tax.

“The assessments made by another district or foreign audit fromBrookhaven area businesses are not included in these totals,” shesaid. “We are unable to extract how much Brookhaven area auditresults are included in the totals of other district offices.However, a business located in the Brookhaven area audited byanother district is still subject to city diversion to theappropriate Brookhaven District municipality.”

In other words, she said, there could still be more money outthere that belongs to the city of Brookhaven above the totals fromthe Brookhaven District.

Meanwhile, the other $3.1 million in assessments is from variousother kinds of taxes. Waterbury said $1.8 million, the largestchunk of the remainder, comes from gas severance tax, which is atax on the production of natural gas.

“One third of gas severance tax collected is for the benefit ofthe county where the gas was produced,” she said.

Another $685,000 of the money owed by Brookhaven Districttaxpayers is individual income, and $488,000 is use tax, Waterburysaid. The rest of the money is split between other taxes such asspecial fuel, withholding, finance, corporate and franchisetax.

District Attorney Dee Bates said paying taxes is not just anobligation, it’s the law.

“People need to be aware that there’s a penalty for not payingyour taxes, it’s a necessity,” he said. “I don’t enjoy paying themeither, but it’s an obligation. It’s not something we enjoy butit’s a necessity, and in a way it gives us a lot ofprivileges.”