Сбор налогов с ресторанов и розницы в Бёрлингтоне упал на 6% из-за проблем с безопасностью и удаленной работой

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Tax collections from restaurants and retail stores in Burlington are down in recent years, more evidence of challenges facing city merchants, as public safety concerns, road construction projects, and remote work have all hurt foot traffic downtown. “If you’re a businessperson and your sales are up 0.2% and you got inflation at 2 or 3%, you’re not real happy, right?” said economist Art Woolf. With the city’s tax revenue from meals flat over the last six years and trending downward the last three, the numbers show the Queen City is down almost 6% from 2023 to 2025. At the same time, neighboring South Burlington is up 1.8%, while Williston is up 15%. “Burlington is basically slow-growing or not growing at all if we’re looking at a shorter period of time, and Williston is doing very well. South Burlington is doing okay, but not as well as Williston,” Woolf said. He says people go to Burlington, South Burlington and Williston for different things. Burlington still has the most overall meals tax revenue out of the three cities, whereas Williston -- home to big box stores -- takes the cake for retail by a large margin. Accountant Leo O’Reilly works daily with local restaurants in Burlington to analyze their finances and says the declines have continued this summer. “That midweek lunch just doesn’t exist the way it used to, so that’s pretty dramatic, and the midweek nighttime sales are not what they used to be,” O’Reilly said. He says weekend events like the Jazz Fest or major concerts cause restaurant sales to skyrocket. Spending on those events is something Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stana touted last week to local businesses. “And that’s very strategic and very intentional. We’re not passively letting just the realities of the perception issues of community safety or whatever Trump does with Canada be the determinants of our economic vitality,” she said. But according to O’Reilly, the foot traffic on average summer days just isn’t cutting it for restaurants. “A couple of weeks ago, where there was just no programming -- it’s not unusual for there to be no programming, but there was no programming -- sales were like November; it was very shocking,” he said. On a separate note, diners in Burlington will continue to pay a higher local tax on restaurant meals. A temporary increase in the gross receipts tax, from 2% to 2.5%, was supposed to sunset at the end of June, but the City Council ultimately supported the mayor’s request to keep the increase permanent to help fill the budget gap.