With retail sales plagued by significant snowfalls, sales tax income for Albemarle County and Charlottesville dropped for the second-straight month in February in comparison with 2009 figures, according to data released by the Virginia Department of Taxation.
Albemarle’s income from the local portion of Virginia’s sales tax dropped nearly 9 percent in February 2009 to $777,346 compared with the same month’s 2008 income of $854,044. The county’s January income was nearly 3 percent below 2009 figures, making for a 6 percent drop in sales tax revenues for the first two months of the year.
Charlottesville fared only slightly better, earning 4.37 percent less in the first two months of 2010 compared with 2009, figures show. The city brought in $642,727 in February compared with $687,703 in February 2009, a 6.54 percent drop for the month.
“It’s not a good sign,” Timothy Hulbert, president and chief executive of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday. “Looking at any one month of sales tax figures does not forecast a trend, but if you look at the figures over time, it doesn’t look good.”
The poor showing comes after two years of falling sales tax revenues, Hulbert noted. Albemarle County earnings dropped 4.38 percent in 2008 compared with 2007 and 9 percent in 2009 compared with 2008.
Charlottesville income dropped 3.22 percent in 2008 from the previous year and 7.82 percent in 2009 compared with 2008.
One factor that likely contributed to the losses was Mother Nature’s snow assault on the region during February, area officials said. The area was struck by two snowstorms in quick succession that left more than 2 feet of snow on the ground and made traveling to work difficult, let alone going shopping.
A major snowstorm struck the region on the weekend before Christmas, considered an even more lucrative holiday shopping time frame than the weekend after Thanksgiving. Snow and rainstorms also shut down schools, roads and stores in January.
Both December and January showed decreased revenue in comparisons with the same months in the previous years, according to the state’s figures.
“There was a lot of difficult weather in the past couple of months, in December and January, and that affected sales in those months. February’s weather was just as horrible, if not worse,” Hulbert noted. “I don’t know if we’d have had positive numbers had we not had the snowstorms, but I don’t think the month would have been as bad. I tend to think that was a mitigating factor, when you look for trends.”
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