March represented another solid month for Brookhaven’s sales taxcollections, but chamber of commerce officials cited nationaltrends as reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future.

With $333,334.59 for its share of March sales tax revenue,Brookhaven’s total was up almost $18,000 over March 2004’s$315,760.81. The total allowed the city to climb one spot to 22ndin statewide rankings.

“Our continuing increasing sales tax revenue is a good sign of astrong local economy,” said Cliff Brumfield, Brookhaven-LincolnCounty Chamber of Commerce executive vice president. “However, therecent performance of the stock market, coupled with increasing gasprices, are cause for some concern for the economy on the nationallevel.”

Almost all of the state’s Top 25 sales tax collectors postedincreases over their March 2004 totals. The lone exceptions wereNatchez and Greenville.

With the good March 2005 showing, Brookhaven’s year-to-datetotal surpassed its total at the same point in 2004. The city’s2005 year-to-date total was $3,054,064.32 compared with 2004’s$3,038,613.20.

Brumfield said he hopes to see Brookhaven’s positive sales taxtrend continue. A number of outside factors, though, could havesome impact.

“It’ll be interesting to see our numbers next month afterhearing some negative reports on the current state of the nationaleconomy,” Brumfield said.