Norfolk Revenue Report Highlights Lost Businesses

New and innovative funding – two words pregnant with meaning.

Sharon McDonald, Norfolk Commissioner of the Revenue, who will leave her job in December, coined these sentiments in the annual Sales and Revenue report for Norfolk, published last week.

The words convey caution. They also challenge city officials to find new revenue sources.  Announcements over the past year – the hotel and conference center, a proposed outlet mall and Norfolk’s preeminence as an All-American city -- have perhaps masked Norfolk’s struggle for revenue.

The city’s sales and tax revenue declined for five years, post the financial meltdown of 2008.  

The Sales and Revenue Report for fiscal year 2013, published last week, tickles readers with a potential up tick in the city’s economy.

Optimism reigns. This is the second year of sales and tax revenue gains.

Yet collections rose only 1.7 percent.

The city collected $150.33 million in total revenue (excludes property taxes) in fiscal year 2013, up from $147.9 million in fiscal year 2012.

Admissions, lodging and business property taxes declined.

Business property tax collections dropped from $13.2 million in fiscal year 2012 to $12.83 million for the last fiscal year.

Lodging tax collections declined from $5.8 million in fiscal year to $5.6 million in fiscal year 2013.

Collections of admissions taxes dropped from $3.68 million in fiscal year 2012 to $3.57 million in fiscal year 2012.  

More telling, Norfolk lost 175 businesses between 2009 and 2013, the report said. Whether the businesses filed bankruptcy or left town isn’t outlined in the report.

A sample of financial areas that lost businesses:

District	# of Biz
Church St.	-12
Colley North	-16
Financial	-8
Freemason	-6
MacArthur Center	-8
Upper Granby	-11
Waterside	-17
Five Points	-22
Little Creek East	-24
Wards Corner	-113

A positive note: Granby gained 101 businesses.