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A friend's 'savings' cost us money
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October 20, 2009
A few weeks ago I was having lunch with a friend and he joyfully told me about a great deal he received on a new television. He saved a little over $100 by going to a Northpoint area merchant. He was fairly pleased with himself and his shrewd deal hunting and as his friend I was happy he finally got that TV he had been eyeballing.
Until it hit me-he saved $100 dollars but Forsyth County citizens lost $37.50. Yes, his "deal" cost you and me money. When you drive out across the county line and spend your hard earned money, even for a deal, it costs you money. How can that be you ask? It's simple. For every dollar you spend outside of Forsyth County it costs $0.03 in sales tax revenue. The voters approved three different optional sales taxes to pay for various items like our great schools, infrastructure, parks, soccer fields and even a swimming pool. One cent even goes to keep property taxes down. All voter approved and not always voter supported.
Let's look at a hypothetical family for a moment. Mom and Dad work in Roswell and Sandy Springs.
Mom frequently grabs a few grocery items on the way home from work at a convenient market near her office with an average taxable purchase of $25 and does this three times a week. She then has her dry cleaning done next to that market and does run over to that discount warehouse to pick up other various items. Dry cleaning is $35 a week and the discount warehouse gets an average of $125.
Not uncommon, right? Dad has similar purchases near his office for $125 a week.
So Mom and Dad spend $360 a week in Fulton County. That equates to $1,560 a month or $18,720 annually. Now look at it this way, $10.80 a week, 46.80 a month or $561.60 annually in money given to Fulton County and those cities. Not a big deal, right?
You know what I mean, what can government do with $11 a week? Look a little closer. There are 170,000 people that live in Forsyth County. Let's be conservative and say that 20 percent work or travel out of county and on average spend $100 in week while away from home. A quick recalculation gives us some surprising numbers. How about $102,000 a week, $442,000 a month and a whopping $5,304,000 a year? Yes that's more than five million dollars leaving our county and going to others each and every year.
That five million dollars can pay for recreation centers, libraries, pools, teacher's assistants, books, technology, road improvements, libraries, fire protection, law enforcement, senior service-the list goes on and on.
All those things that Forsyth County is so proud to have and what makes it the great place to live can even better. All those amenities and services we want can be more easily attainable if we just keep our spending inside the boundaries of Forsyth County. How easy is that?
I ask you, your friends and neighbors ask you, your parents ask you and your children ask you to keep your money here at home. Don't pay for Fulton County's parks and greenways. Don't let Gwinnett County build another senior center on your dollar. Dawson County is getting your baseball, soccer fields and libraries. And don't forget that the other school systems are buying books, computers and aides for their children with your money. Let's commit to think Forsyth First and support our businesses, our programs and our citizens. That's something we can all do to help our community.
Tags: Cumming, Forsyth County
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