Brookhaven brought in $524,636.85 in sales tax diversions for the month of January. That’s an improvement of more than $4,400 from January 2019 and a continued climb monthly over the course of the fiscal year. From the beginning of the 2019-2020 fiscal year on July 1, the city has collected $3,431,746.52, an increase of $54,087.70 from the same time one year ago.

Statewide receipts of $42,314,454.83 were $316,000 less than that of January 2019, though the year-to-date total for the state is just over $267 million, an increase of $2.8 million from the total at this time one year earlier.

McComb and Cleveland are the two municipalities in the state closest in residential population to that of Brookhaven — slightly more and slightly less, respectively. January diversions for McComb were $543,860.52, down $11,500 from the previous January. Year-to-date total for the city was approximately $12,000 less than one year prior.

January receipts for Cleveland were $382,943.23, a rise of $15,139 over January 2019. The city’s year-to-date total was just shy of $2.336 million, an increase of $114,000 over the previous year.

Across Mississippi, 33 cities have larger populations than Brookhaven. Of these, 12 brought in lower tax receipts than Brookhaven. They were Canton, Clarksdale, Clinton, Gautier, Greenwood, Grenada, Hernando, Long Beach, Moss Point, Natchez, Ocean Springs and Pascagoula.

The capital city of Jackson, with the largest city population in the state, brought in $2.5 million for January, down $41,000 from the previous January; and the municipality’s year-to-date of $16.3 million was down more than $600,000 from last year’s marker.

Ten other cities brought in sales tax receipts of more than $1 million for January, including Flowood, the state’s 45th most populous city.

Twenty-eight towns or cities brought in sales tax receipts of less than $1,000 for January, including Arcola, Cary, Lula, Snow Lake Shores and Paulding, which brought in $53.61 for January, and $371.11 year-to-date.

The town of Satartia, with a population of nine persons, brought in $114.48 for January and $708.51 for the year, down by more than $1,000 since last year.

Sales tax data is provided by the Mississippi Department of Revenue. Sales tax has a three month cycle. In Month 1, tax is collected by the retailer. In Month 2, tax is reported and paid to the Department of Revenue by the retailer. In Month 3, diversion is paid by the Department of Revenue to the cities. This report is based on the month the tax is collected at the Department of Revenue (Month 2).