Taxes may be going up in Pascagoula, 11 workers will be laid off Sept. 1, and it’s all due to a recent forensic audit that showed that city is $14-million in the red. While documents gave the appearance that everything was fine, the city has been using bond money to cover its debt for the past 3 years. That means current leaders have to make some tough decisions to get the budget righted. If the tax increase is approved, it would add up to about $168 for a $200-thousand home.
In Biloxi, the Council is seeking legislative action on the continuing loss of tax revenue from internet sales. They approved a resolution earlier this week, asking state lawmakers to force vendors outside the state to collect and cough up sales tax revenue. The Supreme Court recently ruled that states can enforce the collection process.
Tourism on our coast is up by more than 6% for 2017, compared to 2 years earlier. A report from Longwoods International found of the more than 13-point-five-million people visiting the coast last year, 57-percent were involved on day trips. In all, visitors spent nearly one-point-two-billion-dollars, an increase of more than nine percent compared to 2015. The figures were derived from a sample of 890 trips to the coast last year.
The preseason kicks off today in the N-F-L with the Hall Of Fame Game.
We're still more than a year away from Mississippi's next election for governor, but you wouldn't have known it had you been at the Neshoba County Fair yesterday. Both Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood and Republican Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves took aim at each other in separate stump speeches. The most significant sparring topic between the two was the now-canceled road project leading to Reeve's residential area.