Cedar Park Urges Residents to Shop Locally

CEDAR PARK, TX -- Just in time for the holidays as a friendly reminder of sorts, Cedar Park officials are urging residents to think local when shopping for their goods.

With the mantra “Shopping locally matters!” a recent posting on the city’s website outlines the importance of shopping within Cedar Park to bolster the city’s tax base. The primer details the range of community benefits of shopping within the city limits as a way of yielding revenue for essential services—fire, police, parks and recreational amenities and libraries.

“When you shop and dine in Cedar Park, two cents of every dollar you spend stays in Cedar Park,” officials note. “It helps fund our parks, roads and other services. Plus, it helps bring quality, higher-paying jobs, to Cedar Park.”

The tactic of shopping locally also keeps taxes down given a steady revenue stream of in-city purchases: “It helps keep our property tax rate low and our quality of life high,” city officials write. “So make sure you ‘Got it in Cedar Park.’ “

In further encouraging the practice, the city provides a map of shopping corridors and retail outlets located within the city limits. They even provide an easy gauge determining whether residents are shopping locally: “Hint: if you have to bring your own bag to a store to shop, chances are you are not shopping in Cedar Park,” the website reads, referencing a plastic bag ban in nearby Austin of which some smaller municipalities don’t adhere.

Cedar Park’s brisk pace of growth—fueled largely by the economic powerhouse of Austin in near proximity—has prompted city officials to methodically chart out the city’s future. The suggestion to residents to shop locally complements a voter-approved measure in 2000 that directs a full cent of each sales tax to fund a pair of economic development corporations.

A quick glance at the State Comptroller of Public Accounts website reveals the incentive behind the local shopping push. The city posted more than $1.02 billion in goods sold among all industries this year, some half-a-million dollars’ worth of that amount subject to sales tax.

The sales tax in Cedar Park is 8.25 percent. Of that, 6.25 percent goes to the state, with the remaining 2 percent—or two cents of every dollar spent—staying in Cedar Park. More information on local shopping is available at cedarparktexas.gov.