Business & Tech
City Reports Show Increase in Business Openings
More smaller businesses were started for fiscal year 2011 than last year, but Kenneth Andrews, the building official for the city of Largo, says that doesn't necessarily mean this will be a trend for Largo.
Kenneth Andrews, the building official for the city of Largo, explains that numbers regarding businesses and business tax revenue from one fiscal year to the next are “as variable as the temperature.”
From fiscal year 2010 to fiscal year 2011, Andrews says the city collected a slight increase in business tax receipts, at approximately 3.2 percent, and an even slighter decrease in the amount of business tax revenue was collected, at approximately two percent.
The city projected a total of $644,000 for this fiscal year in business tax revenue, and $627,760 was collected. Andrews says that the city normally collects $10,000 to $15,000 less than it projects.
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“And there’s no real reason for that; the economy is so iffy,” says Andrews. “You don’t know who’s going to disappear.”
Because there was an increase in business tax receipts, this means that more businesses were started this year than last year although they were smaller businesses, Andrews says.
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“You’re looking at someone building an office of a couple hundred square feet versus an industry of a couple thousand square feet.”
He added that the businesses had to be smaller businesses because part of the city’s tax is based on size.
But Andrews says its tough to determine if this year’s figures are enough to determine if Largo will see a trend in small businesses opening in future years.
He added that for fiscal year 2010 $656,000 was projected in business tax revenue and $640,000 was collected.
“You can’t tell,” says Andrews. “You use the best data that you have, and you’re still off 15 to 18 thousand off of your projected to your actual income.”
He added that the people who do the projections have reduced them every year for the last two years. He said the numbers are indicating that the revenue will decrease, but “what is a decrease in a couple percent a year?”
Andrews said the number of business renewals were up 4.2 percent from last year, so again it is difficult to determine what the future holds for the number of businesses opening or closing in future years for Largo.
“The stability in this economy is so unpredictable that you really can’t say what it means for the city.”