Starkville, Columbus show increases with most recent sales tax numbers
With the coming of the New Year, local sales tax numbers for the Golden Triangle showed both ups and downs.
The Mississippi Department of Revenue released its December sales tax numbers for communities across the state this week.
Sales tax numbers are reported on a threemonth cycle, with retailers collecting the sales tax in the first month and reporting and paying the money to the state in the second. In the third month, the tax diversions are paid back to the communities.
This means that the numbers shown reflect taxes collected in November.
The city of Starkville received $646,494.30 for the month, an increase over $608,757.52 in 2018. The amount was also an increase over the prior month, in which the city received $609,687.48 in taxes.
Since July 1, 2019, the city has received $3,727,912.19, a slight increase over $3,698,269 at the same point in 2018. The community also received $91,792 from its parks and recreation hotel and restaurant tax, $16,221 from its hotel tax, $213,655 from its tourism and convention tax and $32,174 from the combined Starkvilleoktibbeha tourism tax.
West Point received $199,999.39 for the month, up from $165,945.65 the year prior and down from $211,847.67 last month. To date, West Point has received $1172,269.09 for the fiscal year.
The city received $25,640 from its West Point special tax.
Columbus received the most of the three Golden Triangle municipalities, with a figure of $807,950.35 for the month of December.
The figure was up from December 2018,
conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Reeves ruled correctly.
On Dec. 27, Mississippi asked the entire appeals court to reconsider the case. The court on Friday denied that request. Bryant said in December that he wants Mississippi to take the 15-week case to the the U.S. Supreme Court He left office when his second term expired Tuesday. The new Republican governor, Tate Reeves, was lieutenant governor when the 15-week ban was passed, and he supported it.
Tate Reeves and Carlton Reeves are not related.
A central question in the case is about viability — whether a fetus can survive outside the woman at 15 weeks. The clinic presented evidence that viability is impossible at 15 weeks, and the appeals court said that the state "conceded that it had identified no medical evidence that a fetus would be viable at 15 weeks."
The Mississippi law would allow exceptions to the 15-week ban in cases of medical emergency or severe fetal abnormality. Doctors found in violation of the ban would face mandatory suspension or revocation of their medical license.
The 5th Circuit is based in New Orleans and handles cases from Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. It is generally considered one of the most conservative federal appellate courts.
Judge Reeves' ruling on the Mississippi law also put a similar law in Louisiana on hold. The 15-week abortion ban signed by Louisiana Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in 2018 included a provision that the law would take effect only if a federal court upholds Mississippi's 15-week ban.
Judge Reeves also blocked Mississippi's six-week ban on abortion.