Brookhaven’s share of July sales tax collections offered anacceptable if not overly exciting start to the state’s new fiscalyear, city officials said.

At $401,412.07 for last month, the city was down about $7,000from July 2006’s $408,884.79. July’s collections represented salesmade in June.

Mayor Bob Massengill offered a lukewarm assessment of the newsales tax total. On the positive side, the July total was above the$385,000 a month the city budget anticipates from sales tax.

“Any month we’re over that total, we’re not disappointed,” themayor said. “With $401,000, we’re not overly excited, either.”

For the month, Brookhaven placed 24th in the state among cities’sales tax rankings.

In his own comparison, Massengill said Brookhaven placed ninthamong 22 municipalities with situations and populations similar toBrookhaven. Populations in the compared communities range from12,000 to 20,000.

“Obviously, we’d like to be in the top four or five, but usuallywe’re eighth, ninth, 10th or 11th,” Massengill said.

Mentioning Oxford and Madison, the mayor said Brookhaven isbeing compared against communities that have recently or arecontinuing to expand their retail bases. When school is in session,he said is difficult to surpass communities like Oxford, which ishome to Ole Miss.

Massengill sounded hopeful that Brookhaven’s monthly total wouldimprove next month when sales tax collections should see a boostfrom businesses in the city’s annexation area. The check the citywill receive from the state next month will represent sales taxcollected in August, which will be from sales made in July, whichwas the first month after the annexation took effect.

With July being the start of the state’s fiscal year, monthlytotals were the same as those for the fiscal year to date.

In other parts of Southwest Mississippi, McComb received$473,686.67 in July sales tax. That was up from the $448,013.30received a year ago.

Also in Pike County, Summit businesses rang up $30,037.12 forthe town, a slight drop from July 2006’s $31,644.58.

In Lawrence County, Monticello took in $36,716.60 for its shareof July sales tax. That was down about $4,500 from the July 2006total of $41,239.78.

In Copiah County, Wesson collected $14,500.14 for its share ofJuly sales tax. The total was up a little from $13,754.33 last yearat this time.

Bude’s collections were almost unchanged in monthly comparisons.July 2007 saws the town collect $10,669.13 while the total was$10,782.29 in July 2006.

Also in Franklin County, Meadville’s totals were virtuallyunchanged, with $10,096.27 this July and $10,127.95 last July.