Vicksburg’s sales tax and gaming revenue income for the first three months of the 2022 fiscal year has exceeded collections for the same periods in 2019 and 2021, according to information from the city’s accounting department.

The revenue figures were released at Wednesday’s meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

“This is great news,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said.

The city’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. According to the revenue reports, the city’s gaming revenue for the first three months of 2022 totaled $1,498,676.80; 23.77 percent, or $287,807.95 more, than the $1,210,868.85 collected in 2019 and 17.96 percent — $228,223.67 — more than the $1,270,453.13 collected in the first three months of 2021.

Vicksburg receives sales tax revenue from two sources, the state’s 7-percent sales tax and a 2-percent sales tax on food and beverage sales and hotel room rentals dedicated to paying off the loan for the Sports Force Parks on the Mississippi sports complex.

The state reimburses the city 18.5 percent of the sales taxes collected inside the city limits. With the exception of an administrative fee charged by the Mississippi Department of Revenue to process the tax, the city keeps all the revenue from the special 2-percent tax.

Sales tax disbursements from the state to the city run two months behind, so the city has so far received disbursements for October and November 2021. The December 2021 disbursement will be received later this month.

According to the city report, sales tax revenue for the first two months of 2022 total $1,328,786.63; an increase of 3.32 percent — $42,742.46 — over the $1,286,044.17 collected during the same period in 2019 and 4.84 percent, or $61,362.03 more than the $1,267,424.60 collected in the same period in 2021.

The city’s 2-percent sales collections for first two months of 2022 totaled $431,481.11; 13.14 percent, or $50,097.58 more than the $381,383.73 collected in 2019 and 19.09 percent — $69,167.57 — more than the $362,313.54 in 2021.

Flaggs said the improving revenue “just reiterates that we are headed in the right direction and we’re doing everything that we need to do to stimulate our local economy post-COVID.”

He said the numbers indicate “we’re open for business; we’re making the right decisions — keeping the government open, keeping the economy open, keep incentivizing the local economic development. It can only get better.”