The ThinkChristiansburg! blog reminded me of something I had put on a back burner. Sales tax revenue.
Ya see, it’s like this. Blacksburg discourages businesses that would bring in a lot of sales tax, while Christiansburg scarfs them up like a hungry T-Rex! Why such disparity? Maybe it is because Blacksburg has figured out a few things that Christiansburg hasn’t. Quite simply “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free”.
Although the data for fiscal year 2008 is not available yet, DataPoint shows that FY 2007, Christiansburg received Local Sales and Use Tax of $1,578,041 (note, this is only slightly higher than the Business License Tax revenue of $1,406,201 and far lower than the Restaurant and Food Taxes at $4,432,695).
During that same year (2007) Blacksburg received Local Sales and Use Tax of $1,327,121 (Business Licenses taxes totaled $1,493,065 and Restaurant Food Taxes were $2,448,102.)
Soooo….for the honor of hosting the vast majority of sales tax generating businesses in Montgomery County, the Town of Christiansburg got $171,840 more that Blacksburg.
This may sound like a good deal until you start looking at what it costs to have those businesses. Traffic issues, increased Rescue, Fire, and Police, increased inspections, increased stormwater from loss of impervious surfaces. I’d be willing to bet that the $171,840 difference doesn’t compensate for the extra costs. In fact, during one of the Blacksburg Town Council Candidate Forums, one of the candidates specifically noted that one of the issues with large retail establishments were exactly those types of expenses.
Of course, this distribution of sales tax revenue is due to the fact that both jurisdictions are Towns, just think, if Christiansburg becomes a City, they will be able to add all kinds of extra sales taxes to make up for some of those loses….but, they will also have to make up for new expenses as they would have the full cost of fire/rescue, their own school system, social services, etc…etc…etc.
Maybe the best bet would be to force new large retail establishments out into the county (Blacksburg and Christiansburg would still get their cuts) and get Blacksburg Transit to run special routes from Towns to those centers. Migratory shopping patterns. Are they in the future? (Just kidding!)
Ya gotta admit though that Blacksburgs focus on keeping a quaint atmosphere, lots of greenspace, etc. certainly hasn’t hurt them. They’ve had Christiansburg to pick up all their slack…and garbage…and stormwater…and vehicle accidents…and shoplifting…etc..etc…etc…
