The C4 Report

    Taxes!  You can’t stand to live with them yet we can’t live without them! Did you know that the only way our city government is funded is through sales tax?  Our school system is also funded through; you guessed it, sales tax!  The school system also receives funds through our local property taxes.  I think, we can all agree that having a stable city government and a thriving school system is a top priority for most of us!  Therefore, even though we cringe at the word tax, sales tax and property tax are vital to the operation and up keep of our city and our school system.    

    When it comes to sales tax, inside the boundaries of the Central Community School System, 5.5% sales tax is collected.  Of the 5.5%, the school system gets 2.5% and inside the city boundaries the remaining 3% is collected with 2% for the city and 1% is split between sewer and street improvements.   The collection of sales tax revenue for the City in 2011 was approximately 4.5million dollars and the school systems being slightly more.  There is a term, tax leakage, which describes the tax revenues that is lost due to purchases being made by consumers outside their tax boundaries.  I have heard unofficial estimates that this could be as high as 40% in our community.  Even if we use a conservative estimation of only 25% tax leakage, which would mean over 2 million dollars in taxes are being collected for use outside our area.  These taxes would truly be of great benefit to our community schools and governmental operations.

    Now, we all realize that Central does not have everything yet that we would need or want to buy but we are getting there.  However, many of our areas’ small businesses have expanded their line to accommodate the needs of our community and new businesses are coming in all the time.  Every dollar you spend in our community helps our community.  Even shopping with the Chamber members who are outside area helps because most of them support, live, and shop in Central.

    Next time you are going shopping I encourage you to look around our great community and see all we have to offer!  Stop in at our various businesses and thank them for being apart of our community.  If there is something specific you are looking for, let them know and maybe they will be encouraged to start carrying those items or providing a particular service.  Together we can help our community continue to thrive!