Our Views: Lacey must raise sales tax receipts:

Our Views: Lacey must raise sales tax receipts

All those Lacey residents who think their property taxes are too high, please raise their hand. Whew! That's a lot of hands.

But City Manager Greg Cuoio is quick to point out that when the city adds all the property taxes it collects from Lacey residents, all the shared state revenue, all its business and occupation tax receipts and revenue from gambling taxes, that whole pool of money still doesn't cover the city's cost of providing police and fire protection.

Cuoio's example shows how reliant the city is on sales tax revenue, and when it comes to that revenue stream, Lacey gets only a trickle compared to neighboring Olympia. Last year Lacey collected $5.12 million in sales tax receipts compared to $13.3 million in Olympia.

The simple truth is Lacey needs more restaurants and retail outlets. It needs a bookstore and other customer-friendly services to boost its sales tax base. To that end the City Council has agreed to hire a national marketing firm for $60,000 to identify specific businesses that will be successful in Lacey.

It's a good idea. Identify specific businesses that have been successful in similar markets, develop a marketing plan directly for those businesses, then go after them with gusto.