Important Dates Click each title to learn more

Ribbon Cutting The Lewis Chemical Company - 2/4 @ 5:30 p.m. Ribbon Cutting at Spark Wireless/T-Mobile - 2/6 @ 10:00 a.m.Economic Briefing - 2/7 @ 8:15 a.m. in the Sam King Room (601 Broad Street)Small Business Action Council - 2/11 @ 8:30 a.m.Day at the Capitol - 2/12 @ 7:30 a.m.Ribbon Cutting Floyd Primary Care - 2/12 @ 12:30 p.m.Monthly Member Meeting - 2/14 @ 11:00 a.m. Young Professionals...Arbor Day 2/21 @ 11 a.m.

Member of the WeekLIFOAM

A division of Jarden Corp. Manufacturing and distributingEPS foam coolers, ice substitutes, Wacky Noodles, andmore.

http://lifoam.com/

Nonprofit of the WeekCoosa Valley Fraternal Order of Police

The Coosa Valley Fraternal Order of Police is a charitable organization

comprised of officers from all across this region. We have a

history that spans almost 20 years of helping officers in

need and meeting the needs of needy children.

https://www.facebook.com/coosavalleyfop14/

Small Business of the WeekLas Palmas Mexican Bar & Grill

At Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant, they cook with greatdedication for each and every one of their customers. They put allour effort and experience in getting the freshest ingredients andturn them into an amazing experience.

http://www.laspalmasmexicanrest.com/

Chamber Advantage Deal

Bella Roma Grill - 10% off your order, excluding alcohol and desserts.

Would you like to offer a discount? Email Jeanne Krueger at jkrueger@romega.com for details. For a full list ofChamber Advantage discounts, click here.

Join the Rome Floyd Chamber of the Annual Day at the Capitol trip. Registerhere.

Greater Rome Existing Industries

Association

Thank you, Floyd County College and Career Academy, for hosting January'sGreater Rome Existing Industries Association Meeting. This partnership is anexcellent way for the Rome and Floyd County Community to grow together.

Georgia Northwestern Technical College'sGOAL, Rick Perkins, and EAGLE Awards

It is always such a great honor for the Rome Floyd Chamber to be a part ofGeorgia Northwestern Technical College's GOAL, Rick Perkins, and EAGLEAwards. This year our Chair-Elect Cassandra Wheeler, Georgia Power, helpedto present the nominees and winner for the 2020 Goal Awards.Congratulations to Rick Perkins Award Winner Mandy Jones, GeneralEducation - English, GOAL Award Winner Christina Bullock,Echocardiography, and all the nominees!

Noteworthy:

Sales tax growth is sign of improved economy

Rome News-Tribune: When working with local option sales taxes, it would befairly easy to assume that a penny is a penny.

A 1% sales tax for Floyd County is divided on a percentage basis among the cityof Cave Spring, the city of Rome and Floyd County governments. A change inrevenue collection ought to register the same percentage change for each entity,since you're talking about the same penny at the cash register.But it doesn't work that way.

Glancing back at the last two years of data as reported by the GeorgiaDepartment of Revenue, the positive side of the story is that collections are uplocally. Significantly up.

The perplexing news is that the percentages vary from 8.2% to 9.9%.For example, Floyd County government's share of the basic local option salestax for 2018 amounted to $8,131,124. In 2019, that increased to $8,801,400, anincrease of 8.24%.

The city of Rome received $6,495,894 in 2019. That was up 9.9% from the$5,906,544 distributed in 2018.

Same penny, same distribution formula, different results.When you add the city and county collections together, the figures come to$14,037,668 in 2018. The sales tax revenue climbed to $15,297,294, anincrease of 8.9%.

Retired Georgia Highlands College economics professor Bruce Jones said hewas surprised by the big jump because data on income growth indicates thatpersonal income is only up between 1% and 2%.

"Given that we don't have many more people and (just) 1% of additionalincome, that's a real positive," Jones said. "The fact that it's up says we're eitherdoing a better job of collecting it or people are spending more than they werebefore - which would not surprise me."

Enhanced collection of internet-based sales taxes - enacted in 2018 - couldaccount for at least part of the increase. Jones said Amazon has been remittinglocal taxes for some time but he believes that some of the smaller sites may nothave been.

"Tightening up the law on that was basically to make sure that everybody is onthe same footing and that it is being collected the way it should have beencollected," Jones said.

Last week, Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 276, which requires facilitatorslike Amazon and Google to also collect and remit the tax for third-partycompanies they allow to conduct business on their websites.

State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, said there are estimates that the new lawcould generate another $10 million a month in revenue but he thinks that maybe conservative. Those collections will begin April 1.

"We are typically left to guess what creates either increases or decreases insales tax revenue," Rome City Manager Sammy Rich said. "I think we have

made some progress with the Department of Revenue and transparency, butwe still are not to the point of having clear cut, readily available data that helpslocal governments better understand what's going on with the local economy."Jones, who served on the Rome Board of Education for a number of years, saidhe's seen reports where the basic local option sales tax receipts went up but thespecial purpose local option sales tax - which is collected at the same time -went down.

"That's not possible," Jones said.The Georgia Department of Revenue did not respond to calls from the RomeNews-Tribune.

Rome Floyd Chamber President Jeanne Krueger believes the increase in salestax collections may, at least in part, be the result of a very intentionalcollaborative effort to get people in Rome to understand the importance ofshopping at home.

"I think what we're seeing is, when attention is drawn to something and theimpact it can have, people really start making different choices about wherethey put their dollars," Krueger said. "We're very heartened by this."Robert H. Ledbetter Jr. of Robert H. Ledbetter Properties said the increase insales tax collection could be as simple as the fact that the economy hasimproved.

"We're at full employment, people have a little walking around money,"Ledbetter said. "I'd be interested in the breakdown. What's groceries, what'scars? You've got have something in the numbers to make them go up."As it relates to the difference between the distributions to Rome, Cave Springand Floyd County, Ledbetter shrugged and said, "In a perfect world we wouldknow how much is going to the state and how much we're being remitted back.We truly don't know that."

For decades Rome had been recognized as the shopping hub of NorthwestGeorgia, but that position may have diminished over the years as growth acrossthe Coosa Valley started to cluster around the communities on Interstate 75.Krueger sees a resurgence in Rome over the last couple of years, the result of anumber of factors.

"People love to come and eat in our restaurants and shop in all of our specialtyboutiques," Krueger said.

Another factor, she said, is the consistently expanding medical community.People come from other areas for doctor visits, then eat and shop in town.

"When we have the tennis tournaments, that helps tremendously. I countedone day tags from 35 different areas outside of Floyd County," she said. "Whenthat starts happening, or you have events at Berry College like the GovernorsHonors program, I think it's a great collaboration and I think it's only going toget better."

Krueger said draws from the Rome Braves to the tennis center to expandinguse of the rivers and the growing trail network are all contributing to thegrowth of retail spending locally.

Ledbetter - whose company is in the process of building East Bend shoppingcenter at Turner McCall Boulevard and Hicks Drive - said he hopes the largenew development will add to Rome's importance as a regional retail center.

"Hopefully we'll capture some sales at East Bend that are outside thecommunity now. We want to keep them here." Ledbetter said. "We still feelthat Rome is under-retailed in certain segments. The key is to keep people fromspending money elsewhere. The trick is to bring the right people into town andyou can't always get those people."

City Manager Rich said that city leaders have been very pleased with thecurrent increase in sales tax collections. "However, we would never assume thecollections will remain consistently higher," Rich said.

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