City opens wallets to 'Buy Local'

The Yuba City City Council pulled open its purse strings Tuesday in an effort to support local shopping.

Members gave their support 4-0 to participate in a "Buy Local" multimedia campaign to encourage residents to spend their dollars in Yuba-Sutter. The $50,000 investment, half of which will come from general fund unallocated reserves and half from redevelopment agency reserves, matches money from the private sector. Councilman John Miller was absent.

The campaign, which will be launched this fall, aims to educate residents about how their dollars affect the communities they live in. It will also encourage businesses to be customer friendly and give customers a reason to spend their money in Yuba-Sutter.

"Your money spent here on a TV or your clothes or your laundry soap has a direct effect here on Yuba City," said Mayor Leslie McBride. "There is a direct correlation, I just think the message is not clear enough."

Sales tax revenue contributes to residents' and communities' quality of life through safety, infrastructure and recreation.

Much of the $50,000 in private sector funding has already been promised to the campaign, including about $35,000 from local automobile retailers.

"We are not asking for a handout," said Steve Downing, of Yuba City Toyota. "We just want some help to pave the way."

Without a contribution from the city, the auto retailers will likely form a campaign of their own but it would be aimed solely at vehicle spending, Downing said. But contributing in a regional campaign has a deeper impact on the Yuba-Sutter area as a whole.

Yuba City's sales tax revenue has been dropping steadily, even beyond projected budget decreases, since 2006-07. The revenue that once funded almost 32 percent of city expenditures now only provides for 25.4 percent.

The city is not making up the difference elsewhere. Instead it balances the budget using one-time money and economic stabilization reserve funds.

Retailers, vehicle or otherwise, must do their part in any type of "buy local" campaign, he said.

"If we don't earn our business, shame on us," Downing said.

Vehicle dealerships are the perfect target for shopping local because they have accumulated enough data to realize any marketable change, the sell a big-ticket item that generates a lot of sales tax revenue and existing data shows about half of potential sales tax revenue is being lost to nonlocal markets.

Only 51 percent of new cars are purchased locally. And even though Yuba City residents pay Yuba City's sales tax rate on that purchase, the actual local sales tax stays in the city the vehicle was purchased in, such as Roseville or Sacramento.

Mike Wheeler, who owns Wheeler Chevrolet Cadillac Mazda, has been tracking vehicle registration in the Yuba-Sutter area since 1996. He estimates the Yuba-Sutter area loses about $1 million in annually in leaked sales tax revenue.

Second to education, the campaign must involve the business sector itself, said Don Covey, owner of Yuba City Florist and former president of the Downtown Business Association. Pricing, product selection and customer service are all key.

"My big fear with any shop local campaign is you encourage the business community to do business as usual and place the blame on the consumer," he said. "This should be the other way around."

Everyone needs to do his or her part to keep business alive, said Yuba City Councilman Tej Maan.

"When a business closes, it's not just his business that suffers," he said. "It's his employees, where his employees do business, the community as a whole."

If this program is successful, the city can then come back and invest more money, said Councilman Kash Gill. And if it is not successful, the city needs to come back and find out why.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ashley Gebb at 749-4724 or agebb@appealdemocrat.com.