City of Palmer sees sales tax benefit from Alaska State Fair

PALMER, Alaska (KTUU) – Because the snow begins to creep down the mountains, the Alaska State Honest enters its closing weekend.

The truthful places the small city of Palmer within the highlight throughout its now three-week run, however does the city itself profit from the festivities? The quick reply is sure.

“We truly see a rise in gross sales tax,” Palmer Mayor Steve Carrington stated. “About two-thirds of Palmer’s funds comes from gross sales tax, and so we see a bump when the truthful goes of most likely as much as 25%.”

However the native financial impacts on the companies of Palmer ebbs and flows, relying on which days the truthful is operating. The truthful pivoted to a three-week format final 12 months, giving distributors Tuesdays and Wednesdays off. Govt Director of the Larger Palmer Chamber of Commerce Ailis Vann stated she sees an uptick on the town site visitors when the truthful is shut down.

“Tuesday and Wednesday — I don’t assume — are store’s busiest days of the week,” Vann stated. “So with the truthful being closed, and the additional distributors, guests, all these folks on the town for the truthful — possibly you’re going to return to Palmer on these days off and spend your cash in Palmer.”

As soon as carnival rides come to a cease and distributors board their cubicles again up, the city will return to enterprise as regular with the town receiving an additional increase from the gross sales tax income.

“The cash that the town earns goes into infrastructure and all the things that makes Palmer higher,” Vann stated. “That simply helps us promote Palmer as an important place to return.”

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