April was an unprecedented month for Starkville’s restaurants and bars as a perfect storm of events helped the city reach a record amount of food and beverage tax receipts.
Local retailers also enjoyed success at the register, achieving the city’s second-highest general sales tax collection mark on record.
Taxes collected by businesses in April are received by the city in June.
“April is usually one of the busiest spring months for us, but everything came together this year. It was the perfect storm for tourism in the restaurant business,” said chef Jay Yates, who owns The Veranda. “We were hitting on all cylinders. The weekdays, not just the weekends, just felt bigger. It was a fun month.”
Starkville collected $211,161.47 in two-percent food and beverage taxes in April, which marks the first time the city eclipsed the $200,000 mark. That total beats its previous record — November 2014’s $180,674.24 collection — by almost $35,000.
Comparatively, April’s collection increased 26 percent from the same time last year.
Starkville has collected $702,687.66 in food and beverage receipts across four months this year. Its monthly collection average — $175,671.92 — currently outpaces 2015’s average of $153,423.43.
The city collected a total of $1.84 million in food and beverage taxes last year.
Hotels also fared well in April. The city’s two-percent lodging tax collected $25,778.98, the highest mark recorded since 2014.
Overall sales tax receipts for April, which do not include food and beverage tax receipts or the hotel levy, broke the $600,000 mark for the second time in history.
April’s total of $603,438.54 is almost $100,000 higher than the $504,020.49 mark recorded at the same time last year and reflects a 19.73 percent increase. During the same month, Columbus collected $836,246.66 in sales tax.
Set in December 2015, Starkville’s former record of $611,579.26 in general sales tax receipts was the first time the city climbed into the $600,000 range.
Starkville is averaging $552,494.99 per month in sales tax receipts, outpacing 2015’s monthly average by about $30,000. In all, the city collected $6.26 million in sales tax revenues last year.
“Through four months of collections this year, we’re showing strong growth in every single month. April is a pretty average month for sales taxes in the context of a calendar year,” said Mayor Parker Wiseman. “Normally, the highest numbers roll in November and December. To get this in a non-holiday shopping month is a big deal.”
April featured numerous amounts of tourist-drawing events, including the annual Cotton District Arts Festival Super Bulldog Weekend, the finale of the Greater Starkville Development Partnership’s Restaurant Week and various MSU sporting events.
In all, the baseball and softball teams drew almost 90,000 fans to campus across 18 games, according to the athletic department’s game statistics, and almost 16,000 people attended MSU’s spring football game.
Officials said they are hopeful May revenues will follow the trend of growing tax receipts.
Yates said his restaurant’s May figures are stronger than last year’s, and The Veranda did not experience a large drop in business after MSU’s graduation.
While local retailers enjoyed the number of MSU fans visiting Starkville in April, GSDP Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Gregory said the stability and growth of the local economy can get overlooked in the athletics-heavy tourism numbers.
Receipts from Starkville’s two-percent food and beverage tax are divided between an improvements fund for the Starkville Parks and Recreation Department (40 percent), MSU student groups (20 percent), the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority (15 percent) and the Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau (15 percent). The remaining 10 percent returns to the city for use toward economic development projects, initiatives and opportunities.
Last year, state lawmakers extended the tax through June 2018.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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