Economic downtown hitting city revenues

By By Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
Current figures on sales and use tax collections and new single family home starts indicate the Hartselle area is struggling in the clutches of economic hard times.
Sales and use tax receipts in Hartselle were down 1.51 percent in February on sales made in January, compared to the same month in 2008. Collections in the county fell 2.63 percent for the same period.
Residential construction activity also experienced a 59 percent year-to-year downturn in Hartselle for the first quarter of this year.
Hartselle reported sales tax receipts totaling $389,477 in February compared to $395,367 in February 2008, a decline of $5,892. Still the city is 1.1 percent ahead of its projected budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Ed Sins, director of the Morgan County Sales Tax Department, said his office has experienced a 2.63 percent drop in revenue when comparing the first four months of this year with the same period in 2008.
The number of permits issued by the city for new residential home starts this year has dropped about 59 percent compared to the same period a years ago, according to Jeff Johnson, director of the Hartselle’s department of development. The same percentage holds true for new home construction comparing 2007 to 2008 figures.
Johnson said construction activity took a turn for the worst in August 2008 and peaked in November of that year when his department didn’t issue a single new home building permit.
Johnson said the city is prepared when building activity returns to a normal level. “We have about 50 lots in two subdivisions ready to go and about that same number in a new subdivision still in the planning stage,” he said.