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If the so-called "big box" stores in Dickson, Hohenwald and Columbia attract 2,000 Hickman County shoppers every week -- as data research indicates -- that's $10.4 million in sales that take place outside this community each year. "That's $286,000 in revenue, in potential revenue, that could be in Hickman County," said Robert Mitchell, speaking of the sales tax that's lost in just that way.
So what can be done about it? Mitchell, the Vision 21 chairman, provided a pretty clear-cut approach during a presentation to the Hickman County Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday: Spend $20 more a week at stores in this county, not elsewhere. If all 9,000 households did that for a year, then the resulting $257,000 in sales tax would help alleviate the government's funding problems. Try $30 a week and the annual revenue would be $386,000. "That $386,000 might be just enough to keep our commissioners from raising the property tax," Mitchell said.
Such efforts go beyond hosting county fairs, basketball tournaments and other special events. Mitchell said Vision 21 executive director Daryl Phillips made a significant dent in the problem four years ago, with help from TVA, by changing the population center of Hickman County for the retail recruiting world. Moving from Centerville to the Lyles intersection of highways 46, 7 and 100 significantly increased the 25-mile radius population. In Centerville, that figure is about 22,000; but in Lyles it meets the 40,000-person area that a lot of retail projects are looking for. "Our population almost tripled," Mitchell said. Similarly, mean income rose -- and the addition of the sewer-line link to Dickson makes that immediate area more attractive. While waiting for business to increase there -- and for Highway 840 and its completion in the next couple of years -- Mitchell said increasing local sales tax is an important project. He encouraged those attending to choose three local retail businesses" that we could not afford to lose," and then spend $20 per week more at those stores.
"Let's get it back to where landowners aren't footing the bill for everything that happens," he said.
Article published in Hickman County Times - April 12th, 2010
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