Brookhaven received $508,813.10 in sales tax diversions for April, up from the $480,240.36 received in April 2015 — a 5.95 percent increase. That’s according to the most recent data from the Mississippi Department of Revenue.

Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Garrick Combs said Brookhaven and Lincoln County are following a national trend.

“The bottom started falling out in 2007, and I think it’s been significant and long climb back from 2010 towards where we are today,” Combs said. “If you look at the long-term perspective from not only sales tax collections and revenue, but also gross sales and the unemployment rate, I think that gives you a better outlook.

“If you put several of those indicators together, that gives a telling picture. We do compete really well on a per capita basis,” he said.

Gross sales are also up from last year. The county saw $17,046,175 in gross sales in April, up from $15,655,557 in 2015. The city also saw an increase from $89,263,568 in April 2015 to $90,675,035 in April 2016.

Sales tax has a three-month cycle. Month one is when the tax is collected by the retailer, month two is when the tax is reported/paid to the DOR by the retailer and month three is when the sales tax diversion is paid by the DOR to cities.