A healthy increase in St. Mary Parish’s sales and use tax collections in May is pleasant news to parish officials, but they say the next few months’ collections will give a better idea of the local economy’s strength. May’s sales and use tax collections totaled $3.15 million, compared to $2.64 million collected in May 2016. Officials collected $330,529 as a result of financial audits, while $13,626 was collected from audits in the same month of 2016. The department recently settled a few audits, which helped to ramp up collections for May, St. Mary Parish Sales and Use Tax Director Jeff ...