Why should residents care if Wal-Mart opens the proposed Supercenter in Erie or one of our other neighboring cities?
Revenues from sales taxes fund City services. We have depended on sales tax from Wal-Mart since 1987 to fund police, fire, road maintenance, open space purchases and maintenance, the Library, the Recreation Center mortgage and operations, and much more. Traditionally, Lafayette has suffered from some of the worst sales tax leakage in our area, meaning that neighboring cities have successfully lured a significant amount of our sales tax dollars out of town. This trend has begun to change as Lafayette has gained more retail choices, but if Wal-Mart leaves Lafayette for some other nearby city, it will drive more of our residents out of town to do their shopping.
