Shop Locally To Support Your Community

The 2013 holiday shopping season is upon us and where you shop can have a profound effect upon the local economy and quality of life.  It is important to do your holiday shopping locally in the greater Carbondale community to support the local economy and keep money circulating throughout our local community.

When you shop locally, you are supporting local businesses which provide many jobs to area citizens and college students working to pay their way through school and many of those local businesses are also very generous in supporting local charities and fundraising activities which improve our quality of life in the community.  These unique establishments help define our sense of place and maintain community character, but we too often forget their survival depends on our continued patronage.  Local businesses have a genuine interest in the well-being of our community and want the town to grow and prosper.

Just as important, shopping locally builds the local tax base by generating sales tax revenues for the city which are the primary source of income to cover the yearly operational costs and provide the quality city services citizens have come to expect.

If you do your shopping online, the money does not circulate back into the local economy and the sales tax revenues are lost for local purposes.  When sales tax revenues do not grow or remain low, then property taxes must climb to cover increasing city costs, including State of Illinois mandated funding levels for police and fire pension programs.

So to help and invest in your local community and business community, keep money recycling locally, and generate much needed sales tax revenues for local use, shop locally here in Carbondale this holiday season and throughout the year.