Reports to the Haines Borough show sales tax revenues held steady in 2010, compared to calendar year 2009.
The borough collected $2.60 million in sales tax last year, compared to $2.58 million in 2009, about a 1 percent increase. Although calendar years don’t align neatly with the borough’s fiscal year, the numbers contrast with projections last May that sales tax revenues would drop 10 percent.
“It would be safe to say the drop isn’t as deep as we projected,” said borough finance director Jila Stuart. “We saw it going down in the first part of the year so we projected it would keep going down, but things leveled off. People had been saying that Alaska was lagging behind in (feeling the effects of) the recession.”
Mike Ward, who owns a grocery store, liquor store and restaurant downtown, said the borough figures jibe with his. “That seems to be right. Things have been pretty flat. 2010 was real similar to 2009. It’s a sign of the times. There’s nothing great going on. We’re just plugging along.”
Ward said rubber tire traffic has seemed to remain the same the past three or four years and that an increase in prices paid to the fishing fleet last year may be helping keep sales numbers even.
Ward said it’s difficult to budget for increasing costs. Businesses that are holding their own are probably doing about the norm, he said.
Ward said his sales in January and February were strong but took a dive in March, figures he attributes to a drop-off in helicopter skiing, which has suffered from scant snowfall in the past month. He said he’d be shutting down his harbor-side restaurant for 10 days and is considering not opening it at all next winter.
Ward has operated the restaurant eight years. “All we may have is food trailers to go next year… The question is, can you afford to lose money for five months and take all the headaches that goes with it, or is it best to shut down and reopen with a better attitude in the spring?” Ward said. “That’s something I have to consider.”
Mary Jean Borcik said the past year was one of recovery for her health food store and deli. “2009 was the slowest for us for a long time. The economy was so bad. But for 2010 we seemed to get back on track. It was good. Our sales were up.”
Sales tax revenues dropped 9 percent in 2009, a figure partly attributed to soaring fuel prices that pushed revenues to $2.79 million in 2008, an increase of 17 percent over 2007. With the exception of 2008, sales tax revenues in 2010 were the highest in at least five years.
Lumberyard owner Chip Lende said those figures mirror his. The vacation and second-home business peaked here in 2008, but the Chilkoot Indian Association housing project and state-funded weatherization program have helped make up some of the slack, he said.
“We’re seeing a higher frequency of smaller jobs. In the early 2000s, we had more whole houses being built. That hit a peak in 2008. 2008 was our highest year. 2009 was down. 2010 was back up, not quite to the ’08 level, but up from ’09,” Lende said.