Someone came to Madison and spent like a drunken sailor... or maybe Madisonites just made fewer trips to the mall. Whatever the cause, KJAM reports that Madison's 2008 sales tax revenues went up 9.2% from 2007. Mayor Hexom advances the fewer-mall-trips theory: he says higher gas prices may have helped the local economy by keeping more shoppers here at home.
Add booming local economies to the list of reasons higher gas prices would do America good! Now, let's see some more money for bike trails and downtown redevelopment....
Stable gas prices are good. I have no problem with oil being $70-80 per barrel, but normal rules do not apply any more and we live in a very volatile world.
ReplyDeleteToo low a price creates instability. Russia has shut off the gas pipeline throug Ukraine that supplies much of Europe. No heat is going to cause riots very soon.
Why haven't we heard anything about the amount of money brought in by the spike in natural gas prices and the corresponding increase in tax revenue that comes in with the sales tax we have to pay on that?
ReplyDeleteMadison could increase its local sales tax revenue if we had a second grocery store so shoppers had another choice. Our community loses a large amount of gross sales and the resulting sales tax revenue because local shoppers feel the need to drive to Brookings and Sioux Falls for deals on groceries. We'll never stop folks from leaving town for a choice in groceries, but we can stem the flow with a second full-service grocery store. That would benefit all of us and our city sales tax revenue too.
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