City of Laurel reaches highest sales tax revenue in city history

LAUREL, Miss. (WDAM) - The City of Laurel received $10 million dollars back from the state in sales tax revenue during fiscal year 2021, according to Mayor Johnny Magee.

“We had the highest sales tax collection that we have had in the history of the City of Laurel,” Magee said.

We’re told May and June saw the highest numbers. Over $965,000 in sales tax revenue was collected during both of those months.

“People continue to shop, they continue to contribute to the economy and we appreciate it very much,” Magee said.

Magee says the record-high revenue numbers may help Laurel become a safer place.

“That $10 million is to equip and fund the police department,” Magee said. “This takes care of police, this takes care of fire, this takes care of buying fire trucks and police cars, things like that.”

Now 11 days into FY 2022, Magee says it’ll be more of the same when it comes to spending those funds.

“We want to continue to do some streets, we want to continue to have a fully-funded fire department and fully-funded police department and give them vehicles to travel in that they can get from one stop to the other without the vehicle breaking down,” Magee said.

Magee says the city set its budget for the next fiscal year at $10 million dollars.

Copyright 2021 WDAM. All rights reserved.