Cities Could Get More Sales Tax Money

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Mississippi’s nearly 300 cities and towns could get a little more sales tax money under proposals lawmakers are considering.

House members passed a measure Tuesday that would send about $10.8 million in money collected from Internet sales to cities. Two House committees passed a second bill that would boost cities’ share of the 7-cent sales tax collected by the state by about $20 million a year.

House Bill 1110, the second measure, would give cities 19.5 percent of state collections inside their boundaries, up from 18.5 percent.

Cities have been trying to win approval to impose their own additional penny of sales tax, but lawmakers have consistently rejected that proposal. An additional penny in every city statewide would yield much more money than the small increases lawmakers are proposing.