Brookhaven maintained its healthy sales tax pace in October, butstrong showings by other municipalities still kept Homeseeker’sParadise out of the state’s Top 20 collectors.

According to Mississippi Tax Commission totals, Brookhaven’sshare of collections last month was $328,672.01. That represented a$31,000 increase over last October’s $297,306.46.

“We’re continuing to see our sales tax increase on a monthlybasis since the start of the new fiscal year (in July),” saidChandler Russ, Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerceexecutive vice-president. “That’s indicative of an improvingnational economy and people starting to feel better about spendingmoney.”

Russ pointed out that Brookhaven passed McComb in October andranked second in southwest Mississippi behind Natchez. Natchez andMcComb traditionally are ahead of Brookhaven in collections.

“Both municipalities are larger in population and land mass,”Russ said. “We’re real pleased to be able, at least, to out-paceMcComb this month.”

Overall, Brookhaven came in 21st in statewide sales taxcollection rankings.

Oxford and Starkville, on the basis of seasonal football gameattendance, stayed in the Top 20 for the month. McComb’scollections slipped to $316,247.04 and dropped the city out of thestate’s Top 20.

Russ was optimistic about the upcoming holiday shopping seasonand the remainder of the year.

“We’ve had a really strong past three to four months and arelooking forward to sustaining that momentum into the shoppingseason,” Russ said.

A reason of optimism, Russ mentioned, were Christmas Open Houseactivities at several businesses. He said the events were an”enormous success.”

“Every store I went into was packed,” Russ said.

For the fiscal year to date, Brookhaven had collected$1,373.935.46 in 2003, which is more than $100,000 ahead of the$1,264,663.06 at the same point in 2002. Russ said the city hadmore than made up a deficit at the end of the last fiscal year andwas showing strong sales tax growth for the new year.

McComb’s October 2003 total represented a decrease of about$18,000 from the October 2002 total of $334,649.95. For the fiscalyear, McComb had $1,503,624.32 in 2003 and $1,421,676.79 at thesame point in 2002.

Also in Pike County, Summit businesses gathered $17,134.52 inOctober sales tax, an increase from last October’s $16,661.25. Sofar in the fiscal year, the city had $76,743.34 this year comparedto $71,755.31 last year.

In Lawrence County, Monticello merchants took in $35,617.87 forthe city’s share of October 2003 sales tax, which was up fromOctober 2002’s $31,351.68. The city was also ahead in fiscal yearto date collections with $137,504.44 in 2003 and $128,594.89 in2002.

Wesson businesses’ October sales tax collections were up about$900 to $10,589.88, compared to $9,645.00 last October. In year todate collections, the town had $43,312.62 for 2003 and $37.207.47in 2002.

To the west in Franklin County, Bude businesses rang up$7,816.12 for the town, which was up considerably from October2002’s $6,458.84. The town was just ahead of its year to date pace,with $31,860.63 in 2003 and $31,259.77 last year.

Meadville merchants took in $8,739.80 in October 2002, which wasup some from October 2002 with $8,052.88. The town remained aheadof its 2002 pace with $35,247.04 this year and $31,812.73 lastyear.