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The next time you start to complain about the condition of your home town ask yourself this one question. Do you do the bulk of your shopping at home?
When you take your business out of town and worse out of the county or even the state you take money out of your community that would be collected in the form of a sales tax. When you vote in a sales tax to support your local hospital or for your local school you MUST spend your money where that tax is collected for the tax to be of any benefit!
When you purchase items on the internet generally there are no taxes involved. That is slowly changing, but most of us search for the NO TAX sites. This hurts our local support structure as well. If you read the fine print of the Oklahoma tax laws you will find a USE TAX that has been effect for years. "If you have purchased items for use in Oklahoma from retailers who do not collect Oklahoma sales tax whether by mail order, catalog, television shopping networks, radio, Internet, phone or in person, you owe Oklahoma use tax on those items. Use tax is paid by the buyer when the Oklahoma sales tax has not been collected by the seller. Individuals in Oklahoma are responsible for paying use tax on their out-of-state purchases." I am willing to bet most of us have never paid that tax.
"So, what?", you ask. When you drive to Woodward to purchase that cheaper product or "get a better selection" you help Woodward fix their streets, support their EMS, Fire and Law Enforcement. You Build a new park in Woodward. And then we curse the city manager of Buffalo, the Town Board and the County Commissioners for not getting things fixed!
Is there a solution? YES! #1 Help more businesses get started in Buffalo that collect sales tax. #2 Shop Dollar General, Venture Foods, Cotter's Oil Company, Buffalo Diner, Colton's Cafe, Mi Casa, Misty Arbor Floral and Gifts, etc. Oh and don't forget K&S Repairs, Flores Body Shop and, of course Dr. G's. That is a start. But here is something you did not know. You can actually shop O'Reilly Automotive, NAPA, Autozone, Sears, Staples, Home Depot, Lowe's, Amazon.com, eBay.com, and any other online entity right in Buffalo and have LOCAL taxes collected!
Dr. G's has commercial/wholesale accounts with most vendors and can have items delivered in as little as one day! Standard mark-ups apply, but I will do my best to find the lowest price to compare with other standard on-line re-sellers! And to the benefit of the community, City, County, and State sales taxes will be collected and it is a win for everyone!
I DARE you to support your community and SHOP at HOME!
P.S.
Since the first draft of this page, some of the businesses have closed and I have intentionally left out some businesses due to the fact that they are not locally owned and therefore the profits made there actually leave the county as well. I may have overlooked some businesses simply because I have not visited them or assumed they do not collect sales taxes.
Businesses create jobs and provide a solution to the demand for products. Jobs create income for the People who spend money on products. People are needed to create a workforce. When People can't find work where they live and then can't afford to travel to work, they leave. When the People are no longer available, the Businesses suffer, and the local community suffers.
It is not the economy's fault, we, the people, create the economy. It is our Latitude of Attitude that draws us to the Instant Gratification of Big Town Variety and LOW, LOW prices that drain our pockets by "stocking up", "saving", "getting a great deal".
And then we come home, penny-less. Yet, you could have made the same single purchase at home (for a fraction more) without the Fuel costs, Driving Time, Extra spending, etc. and SAVED money!
Oh, you had to wait a day or two? Well, not everything is readily available in WW either. Maybe Napa didn't have your product, Nor O'Reilly's, nor AutoZone and you went back to Napa to order it. And it will be here tomorrow. "It's all good!", I hear. "I still got my groceries, ate at Romero's, and filled up with gas! It's 20 cents cheaper!"
Well it cost you $300 to not get what you wanted on the same day...and you get to go back! Just for fun let's say that you paid 4% of that $300 to the City of Woodward. ($12.00) Point 9 percent goes to the County of Woodward ($2.70)
That is $14.70 not going to the benefit of Harper County. Round that to $15. Reduce the spending 1/3 to $200. Two-thirds of the $15 is $10. 50+ people from Harper County are in Woodward everyday. If they spend $200 each trip, Woodward and Woodward county makes over $500 per day from Harper county residents. That is $15,000.00 per month just with "guesstimates" This means that in a years time SIX people can earn a comfortable wage on OUR money.
Hope you are getting the picture. Spend your money at home. Improve your LOCAL economy.
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