While still down around $25,000 from this time last year,Brookhaven’s July sales tax has brought smiles to the faces of cityofficials, who are constantly watching how the economy affectslocal sales.

Brookhaven brought in $425,424.98 this July, as opposed to the$451,148.03 for July 2008, according to totals from Mississippi TaxCommission. Brookhaven/Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce ExecutiveVice President Cliff Brumfield said the total for July is actuallyan encouragement since officials hoped the numbers would be backup.

“We hit our mark,” he said. “Several months ago we had somestrong numbers that we realized were a gain, and shortly after thatwe saw a decrease. The numbers represented a month we expected tosee signs of improvement.”

In the 2008-09 budget, Brookhaven municipal leaders budgeted for$425,000 a month. At times the city has exceeded that, while attimes it has fallen short.

In talks on the 2009-10 budget, officials have set the standardlower, shooting for $415,000 per month, just for the sake of beingconservative.

“In this day and time being able to merely meet budget standardsis something to be celebrated,” Brumfield said.

Despite the monthly decrease, Mayor Les Bumgarner pointed outthat Brookhaven’s numbers were higher than those in McComb andNatchez, which had $423,708.26 and $422,420.20 respectively. Infact, Brookhaven placed 18th among the state’s top sales taxcollectors.

McComb is down around $50,000 from July of last year, when thecity logged $473,338.65, while Natchez dropped only around $14,000from last year’s $436,829.32.

Meanwhile, Brookhaven also beat out similarly sized citiesStarkville, at $416,409.09, and Madison, at $372,719.98. Brookhaventrailed Oxford, which brought in $438,145.56.

City officials said some of the difference, as is usual inBrookhaven, could be in the car market.

“I think we really can see this probably didn’t have anything todo with Cash for Clunkers this month,” Bumgarner said, indicatingthat July’s numbers are actually based on June sales.

With July being the start of the state’s new fiscal year, fiscalyear to date collections are the same as cities’ monthlytotals.

The latest sales tax totals are a good sign, Brumfield said.

“As we move into the fall shopping season and as the automanufacturers begin to increase production to meet the anticipateddemand, we can hope to see even greater sales tax numbers,” hesaid.

Bumgarner said, however, that he is just happy to have met thebudgeted numbers.

“We’re pleased with that,” he said. “That’s always goodnews.”