Just days after Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson shared the good news with Andalusia City Council members that holding the line on spending has put the city in good financial shape, he had even better news Friday.

“The city’s sales taxes were up 6.5 percent in March over the same period in 2008,” Johnson said. “This puts us almost in a class by ourselves.”

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Johnson said year to date sales tax collections were “slightly up” over last year At the time, he had just returned from a League of Municipalities meeting, and he said he didn’t speak with a single other mayor who could say that.

When March sales taxes -which were paid on goods in March and remitted to the city in April – were added, the numbers looked even better.

City Clerk John Thompson said March collections for 2009 were $391,333, or a 6.5 percent increase over last year’s collections of $367,880.

Year to date, Thompson said, sales tax collections are up 2 percent over the same period last year. In the first six months of the fiscal year, the city collected $2.58 million in sales taxes.

Johnson told the council on Tuesday that the city also has spent less money than last year. Through the end of February, the city’s expenses $750,091 less than budgeted and $179,995 less than the same period last year.