Why should I spend my hard earned money in Danville? Yea, that is a very good question. What is so important about buying my groceries, gasoline, clothing, office supplies, building materials and on and on in Danville. There are some things I can buy cheaper out of town, over the Internet or by mail order. There are some things I just can’t buy in Danville at all.

 How often have you heard that conversation or worse yet been part of it?

 Did you know the largest revenue line item in the City’s general fund budget is from retail sales tax? About 45% of the just under nine million general fund budget comes from retail sales tax revenues. These revenues are from items you the consumer purchase within the City of Danville. If you buy something in Tilton, Hoopeston, Westville, Covington or the real kick in the pants, Champaign, that sales tax revenue does not come to Danville. And if you knew how those folks to the west of us really viewed Danville and its citizenry, you wouldn’t even drive through Champaign County to get to Mansfield let alone leave your hard earned money there. But that is another story.

 The latest figures on this topic paint a rather grim picture. The survey numbers reflect the percentage of potential consumer dollars that are spent out side the Danville Trade Area (roughly Vermilion County) by categories. I will grant you some of the numbers show very real, retail establishment needs in the area. The Electronics and Appliances category for example shows us spending 76.7% of our money outside the Danville Area for these items. This clearly demonstrates we have a real need for stores that sell Electronics and Appliances in Danville. On the other hand we do a better job with our home improvement dollars spending a relatively low 5.5% out of the area. The other categories like furniture, clothing, groceries, cars, restaurants, specialty goods and car supplies range from a low of 16.5% to a high of 83.4%. The average from all categories is 26.2%. This represents a total retail loss of over $215 million. The two percent of the sales tax on that amount the state could return to the City of Danville would be $4.3 million. Don’t worry the City will be forced come up with other ways to extract your money for the operation of your city if you continue to spend outside the area.   

The point comes down to this, if you do your spending out side of the Danville City limits you are simply asking for City Council to increase other taxes. With the tight economy and elevated area unemployment it is critically important to be very sensitive to this issue. There is only so much to be cut in an already very lean City budget. The fat was eliminated several years ago. (That is not even a fair statement as it has been this writers opinion “fat” has not been present in this cities budget in years.) The only option the City has is to increase revenues. And, sorry folks, but municipalities do that by raising taxes and user fees. To me it becomes a very simple decision. Buy your stuff in Danville. (You should thank me for not using that alliterative catch phrase of a couple decades ago that every disgruntled shopper burps forth when bemoaning the availability of goods or quality of service locally.) 

 There is another side of the “buy your stuff in Danville” equation. Retailers, you are training your consumers to shop elsewhere with less than quality service and the perception of poor selection. Just as much as you the consumer have trained retailers to limit inventory by not letting them know what you need or by simply shopping elsewhere. It becomes a “loose, loose” cycle. Stop it! It is time to retrain each other. 

Many of us have discovered the ease and convenience of Internet shopping. This glimpse into the future of retail is problematic for not only local municipalities but for counties and state governments too. When sales taxes finely do hit Internet sales conventional wisdom fears the federal government will keep this pot of gold to them selves. This will continue to leave the other taxing authorities with a shrinking sales tax revenue stream.

 The solutions to this problem are complex on one hand and very simple on the other. The most simple way to avoid suffering from increased user fees and taxes is to spend what ever you can spend in Danville. If your favorite stores do not carry the items you need, you may want to, in a very polite manor, ask to speak to a manager and see if they might be able to add the items you use on a regular basis to their inventory. And retailers, just remember the retailer’s mantra “customer service, customer service, customer service”. Do your best to reintroduce yourself to and retrain your lost and forgotten best friends, your customers. “Buy your stuff in Danville”.  

 (Area retail spending information available at Vermilion Advantage, Danville, Illinois

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