Third quarter sales and use tax collections in St. Mary Parish showed a slight increase compared to the same period last year, but September’s collections declined for the second straight month. Officials collected $8.87 million in the third quarter, a 1.8 percent increase from the $8.71 million collected in 2016’s third quarter. Excluding collections made as a result of financial audits, collections declined 3.9 percent from the third quarter of 2016. A total of $203,196 was collected from audits during the third quarter of 2017 compared to the $367,933 collected from audits in the 2016 third quarter. The slight increase ...