Floyd County retail sales growth narrows in 2015

CITY NOTES

Floyd County retail sales growth narrows in 2015

December is customarily when this column examines retail sales in comparison to the previous year. Iowa Department of Revenue has released its “Retail Sales and Use Tax Annual Report” for fiscal year 2015 (1 July 2014 through 30 June 2015). Retail sales figures are often used as an indicator of overall economic vitality of a county or region. Floyd County retail sales were $120.85 million in 2015, an increase of 1.75 percent over 2014. The 2014 retail sales growth over 2013 was 4.58 percent.

Floyd County’s 1.75 percent taxable sales growth lagged behind the state of Iowa’s retail sales growth of 4.68 percent. 2015 retail sales in Iowa were $37.53 billion, up from $35.85 billion in 2013.

As far as the individual towns, Charles City sales were flat. Rockford, Floyd and Marble Rock saw solid increases. Marble Rock’s taxable retail sales have grown more than 27 percent in the past two years. “Other” had a 2015 increase of 20 percent in 2015, following a 62 percent increase in 2014 and an 80 percent spike in 2013.

Taxable sales in 2015 in other counties in the region: Butler $61.21 million; Bremer $191.96 million; Cerro Gordo $719.12 million; Chickasaw $88.31 million; Franklin $72.84 million; Grundy $67.68 million; Hancock $81.06 million; Howard $74.61 million; Mitchell $70.50 million; Winnebago $84.80 million; Worth $45.74 million; Wright $91.96 million. Cumulatively those 12 counties gained $49.58 million in taxable sales, or 3.10 percent.

In 2015, Floyd County moved up one position in taxable retail sales to rank No. 48 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Remember to keep shopping local when you can and keep dollars at home in the form of supporting local retailers and generating Local Option Sales Tax.

that the Floyd County Housing Trust Fund is still accepting applications within its 2016 Furnace Replacement Program. We are asking for your help in referring a relative, friend or neighbor to the Program. With the weather sure to turn cold, it is better to plan ahead and get the furnace replaced than to have an emergency outage.

Tim Fox is the executive director of the Charles City Area Development Corporation. He can be reached at 641-228-3020 or email at tfox@charlescityia.com.

Tim Fox

CC Area Development Corp. Executive Director