“All the trends are in the right direction: Up,” says Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich after reviewing the record-sales tax collections in Biloxi for Calendar Year 2021.
The city’s Community Development Department, which oversees construction, land-use and zoning, reported that Biloxi saw a record $13.8 million in sales tax collections from January to December 2021, with monthly figures eclipsing the million dollar mark for a record 10 months.
The 2021 calendar year figures are nearly a 24 percent increase over Calendar Year 2020.
The news arrives just a couple months after the city announced that Fiscal Year 2021 – which runs from Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021 – saw $1.02 billion in gross-gaming revenue, the highest yearly total since legalized gaming began in Biloxi in August 1992.
Taxes on gaming and sales typically account for two-thirds of the city’s annual operating revenue, followed by property taxes.
Said Gilich: “Our goal now, and it’s the same thing that we said when we saw that record-breaking gaming revenue, is to keep people coming back, to keep making the quality-of-life and quality-of-place improvements that you would expect to see in a community with a vibrant economy. When it comes to the Biloxi economy, if I were a betting man, I’d take the over.”
See sales tax trends in Biloxi
News & notes: Reports, council replay, traffic
Reports: So what happened in Biloxi last week? See the reports from the departments of Fire, Police and Community Development in the online archive of weekly reports. To go there, click here.
Council replay: The Biloxi City Council held two meetings Tuesday. The 1:30 regularly scheduled meeting included discussion over meeting times and other issues and the follow-up meeting focused on proposed revisions to the city’s tree-protection ordinance. To see the replays now, click here.
Traffic: Are you keeping up with road construction and traffic alerts? The Traffic Update page is updated each weekday on the city’s website. To go there, click here. To sign up for traffic alerts, on your cell phone text BILOXI to 99411.
