NATCHEZ — Sales tax revenues in Natchez for the month of December were down 3.58 percent.

City Clerk Donnie Holloway said in December 2007, the city collected $538,000 in sales tax. This year, the city collected $519,000.

Holloway said it’s not a significant dip, and he attributes it to the current state of the economy.

“Everybody is concerned with what we’re faced with at the present time,” he said.

Tax revenues were up for August, September, October and November, each between 7 and 10 percent.

Holloway said he believes fear of the country’s recession didn’t hit until recently, which is why spending slowed down in December.

He also said much of the construction in the area has either slowed down or completed, such as work at the Grand Soleil, the Best Western and the Corrections Corporation of America prison.

“Some of these taxes have been up with construction,” Holloway said.

He said he believes the next few collections will also show a decline.

Mississippi cities collect tax revenues two months after the fact.

January’s revenues will not be collected until March and February’s not until April.

“I feel like we’re going to see a decline in our sales tax for the next few months,” Holloway said.

However, he said revenue should pick back up in March when Spring Pilgrimage kicks off.

All in all, Holloway said the city is still doing well.

“We’re still ahead by 5.5 percent of where we were last year at this time,” he said of the fiscal year’s collections.

And Holloway said Natchez is doing well statewide, from what he’s seen and heard.

“I feel like we’re faring a lot better than other cities in Mississippi at this time,” he said. “Just talking with other cities, their sales taxes have been down ever since the beginning of the cities’ fiscal years.”