Despite the pandemic that has set the nation in an economic disaster, in Columbia things are a different story, at least according to recent sales tax figures released Monday.
Sales taxes for April increased 4.1% over April 2019. Stores report their April sales tax collections to the state Department of Revenue in May, and the city receives its 18.5% of the collections in June.
This year the amount of sales tax returned to the city was $293,254, compared to $281,634 in 2019. The total amount of sales tax revenue for the city from July 2019 until now is $3,024.252, up 1.7% from $2,974,243 the previous year.
Mayor Justin McKenzie could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but he said in a previous interview that he felt the fact that the Board of Aldermen and he did not add any additional restrictions regarding the coronavirus on any of the businesses other than what Gov. Tate Reeves added played a part in the increase during an economic downturn overall.
Larger cities such as Hattiesburg added additional mandates to the governor’s, including limiting people going into box retailers and requiring everyone to wear a mask. Meanwhile Hattiesburg suffered another significant drop of 17.8% in sales taxes in April. The month prior Hattiesburg had a 13.8% drop.
Mississippi was down 7.5% from the previous April but only down 0.5% from the previous fiscal year.
