March tax revenue hits high mark

The latest sales tax revenue reports of 2017 show the highest March tax revenues of the last three years.

Tax revenue reports showed higher city sales tax revenue and hotel/motel tax revenue than February of 2017, but a drop in restaurant tax revenues from February.

“It’s exciting to see that we are going in the right direction from the previous month on the March sales tax information,” said Interim CEO of the Greater Starkville Development Partnership Heath Barret said.

City Sales Tax Revenues

The beginning of 2017 has seen a steady increase in city sales tax revenues, starting with $527,063.09 in January, rising to $577,765.65 in February, and rising again to $610,190.59 in March.

This tax revenue has continued to increase over the past three Marches. Though the average for February tax revenue was down 3.18 percent compared to February 2016, March 2017 saw a 6.35 increase compared to the $573,742.89 March 2016 city sales tax revenue.

City Hotel/Motel 2 Percent Sales Tax Revenue

In March, the city hotel/motel 2 percent sales tax revenue of 2017 has finally caught up to — and greatly surpassed — the 2016 March averages. While January and February 2017 accumulated 14.53 percent and 15.73 percent less of the hotel and motel tax than January and February of 2016, March 2017 is 178.71 percent ahead of March 2016.

January 2017 revenue for hotel and motel taxes was $14,589.44 and February was $19,627.40. Both were below the revenue collected in their respective months of 2016. However, March 2017 was nearly triple the amount collected in March 2016, and more than triple the amount of February 2017, with a total of $61,344.32 of revenue as compared to $22,010.31 in March 2016.

Barret said the increase in revenue may be attributed to visitors coming to stay in Starkville for various March events.

Some of the biggest events were the Magnolia Film Festival that took place between March 2 and March 4, the NCAA games on the weekend of March 18, and the Charles H. Templeton Ragtime and Jazz Festival from March 20 to April 1.

City Restaurant Tax Revenue

Starkville’s restaurant tax revenue was the only tax revenue that saw a decrease between February and March 2017. The revenue was higher in March 2017 than March 2016 by 10.55 percent, however it is lower than February of 2017 by 11.09 percent.

Barret said the decrease may be related Mississippi State University’s schedule. MSU students’ spring break for 2017 occurred between Monday, March 13, to Friday, March 17.

“You have 20,000 students who leave town from the Friday before to the following Sunday,” Barret said. “That is a big difference (in population) from 204,000 to 181,000. That could be one of the factors for the decrease in tax revenue.”

When comparing to the restaurant tax revenue of last year, January 2017 saw a restaurant tax revenue of $150,297.69, which was lower than January 2016t. February 2017 was higher than February 2016 at a revenue of $204,597.46. March 2017 was also higher than March 2016 with a revenue of $181,904.88.

January 2017 restaurant tax revenue was the only month so far this year that was lower than its respective month in 2016. January 2017 was 6.31 percent lower than January 2016. How-

ever, February bounced back with an increase of 22.83 percent compared to February 2016, and March 2017 was up from March 2016 by 10.55 percent.

During the week of Monday, April 17, to Sunday, April 23, Starkville had one of its

largest restaurant promotion events, Starkville Restaurant Week.

Barret said the GSDP hopes to see improvements in the 2 percent restaurant tax revenue during the month of April.

“Part of the reason we have restaurant week is to increase restaurant awareness, bring people in to eat at our restaurants and to help that sales tax,” Barret said.

Overall, Starkville’s city sales tax revenue, 2 percent hotel/motel tax revenue and restaurant tax revenue in March 2017 were all higher than reports from March 2016.

“We hope to keep seeing positive trends,” Barret said. “We’ll look forward to our local residents getting out ... and taking advantage of the wonderful things we have here locally in Starkville.”