With the city’s yearly budget depending on sales tax returns of$425,000 a month, Brookhaven officials are feeling better aboutApril’s $424,319.65 check in the bank.

In March, Brookhaven’s sales tax returns came in at $401,984.14.Mayor Bob Massengill said with the national economy flounderinglike it is, any increase in sales tax is a blessing.

“We’re pleased any month we have an increase, especially whenthe amount is within a few hundred dollars of our budget,” he said,adding that of the 22 cities Brookhaven’s size that he surveys,Brookhaven was sixth in collections for April. “The averageincrease for all these 22 towns … is $15,000 over a month ago,and we’re up $22,000 over a month ago.”

Meanwhile, where March 2009’s total, as low as it was, surprisedofficials by being $52,000 more than March of 2008, this year’sApril total is roughly $117,000 less than last year’s April amount.This was not unusual across the board, however.

“If you compare all 22 towns this year with a year ago, you’llfind this year is far less, not because the economy may be somewhatworse,” Massengill said. “But there was an abnormal amount thatcame in that month.”

Mississippi State Tax Commission Director of CommunicationsKathy Waterbury said the entire economy is down, but that does notaccount for the strange fluctuation.

“What happened last year was that we had a technical problemwhere some return and payment information did not post to thecorrect month,” she said. “During our routine post-auditprocedures, the problem was detected and corrected. Therefore, somepayment information that should have been included in March wasincluded in April.”

Obviously 2008’s $541,565.51 was inordinately high forBrookhaven, just like March 2008’s $349,709.83 was strangelylow.

Massengill said, however, he is encouraged by the progress – notonly in Brookhaven, but across the state. He said, though, there isstill good reason for Brookhavenites to keep home in mind whenmaking purchases.

“We’re about $4,000 behind Starkville, and Corinth is a littleahead of us, but we’re up there with good business towns in thestate,” he said. “But we do continue to encourage people to shop athome. This not only helps the city but it is vital to our localbusinesses, it is so tremendously important to their livelihoods,we need to please continue to do that.”

While the city’s fiscal year and the state’s fiscal year differ,state totals for Brookhaven show its 2009 year to date numbers nowrunning behind its 2008 total. At this point in 2008, Brookhavenhad collected $4,343,516.93 in sales tax compared to $4,307,943.74at this point this year.

Waterbury said the economy has definitely affected sales taxstatewide, dropping it 12.81 percent across Mississippi.

“Sales tax is down all over,” she said. “We’re getting close toanother month’s end right now, and we don’t know what it’s going tolook like. It’s been dropping the last couple of months,though.”