NATCHEZ — Once again sales tax collections for the City of Natchez have dropped.

The most recent drop is a 3.3 percent decrease for sales tax collections for the month of June, compared to collections last June.

The city collected $422,420 for June 2009. That compares to $436,829 for June 2008. Sales tax collections are reported two months after the fact.

City Clerk Donnie Holloway said the decrease wasn’t a surprise to him after months of lower collections.

“I was surprised it wasn’t down a little more than what it was,” he said.

Holloway said business owners reported a dismal month for June and that led him to believe sales tax collections would drop substantially.

“June was a very hot month, and I didn’t see a lot of activity downtown,” he said. “And merchants were all saying their business was off. I figured we’d be down about 7 percent.”

Total collections for the fiscal year are $4,857,447. That is .02 percent ahead of last year’s pace. The fiscal year runs from Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept. 30, 2009.

Sales tax collections have dropped every month from January to June 2009 with the exception of February, which reported an 8.59 percent increase over February 2008.

Last month, sales tax collections showed a 7.6 percent drop for the month of May.