Brookhaven ended the fiscal year with higher sales tax receipts than 2019 and kicked off the new fiscal year with a big bump, as well.

Fiscal Year 2019-2020 closed with sales tax receipts of $5.893 million for the year, up from $5.797 million at the close of FY2018-2019.

July kicked off the new fiscal year with $565,664.61, up considerably from July 2019’s start of $482,965.74. August added $545,017.23 to that total — surpassing August 2019’s $491,296.71 by more than $53,000 — bringing the year-to-date number to $1.11 million.

Statewide, city receipts totaled $40.015 million, up more than $3.2 million from the previous year. Data includes all 362 cities and towns in the state, plus public universities and community colleges.

Grenada and Canton are the two cities in the state closest in residential population to that of the Home Seekers Paradise — slightly more and slightly less, respectively. Grenada brought in $410,260.57 for August, nearly $30,000 more than one year earlier, pushing its year-to-date total to $799,570.44. Canton had $288,232.88 in tax receipts for August, $37,500 more than the previous year, bringing its YTD to $592,637.78.

Across Mississippi, 34 cities have larger populations than Brookhaven. Of these, 18 had lower tax receipts than Brookhaven for August — Pascagoula, Ocean Springs, Natchez, Moss Point, McComb, Long Beach, Horn Lake, Hernando, Grenada, Greenwood, Greenville, Gautier, Corinth, Clinton, Clarksdale, Canton, Brandon and Bay St. Louis.

Jackson has the largest population of any Mississippi municipality.  The state capital brought in $2,326,658.89 in August sales tax receipts, up from 2019’s $2,194,990.59. Jackson’s YTD of $4.787 million is ahead of 2019’s $4.516 million.

Nine other cities brought in sales tax receipts of more than $1 million for August — Biloxi, Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Meridian, Olive Branch, Pearl, Ridgeland, Southaven and Tupelo.

Satartia, the state’s smallest municipality included on the Mississippi Department of Revenue’s sales tax list with a population of 49, brought in $97.52, up $1.60 from August 2019, with a YTD of $184.31, down $4.08 from 2019’s YTD.

Falcon (pop. 140) and Paulding (pop. 838) had sales tax receipts of $80.16 (YTD $156.03) and $31.51 (YTD $72.21), respectively. Though Paulding has a large enough population to make it Mississippi’s 338th-largest town, it is unincorporated. The incorporated town of Tillatoba in Yalobusha County, however, has a population of 25 and is not included in MDR’s sales tax receipt cycle.

Neither the town of Friars Point in Coahoma County (pop. 973) nor Utica in Hinds County (pop. 876) has recorded sales tax receipts for this fiscal 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, sales tax income (“diversion”) is paid by the DMDOR to cities. This report is based on the month the tax is collected at the MDOR (Month 2).