By Rupert Howell
With increasing information available through mediums unheard of just a few years ago, we at this newspaper find some areas of news coverage now outdated.

Elsewhere in this newspaper you will find a news story concerning the amount of money rebated back to municipalities once businesses therein submit sales tax collected to the state tax collector.

This information and more is readily available on the Department of Revenue’s Web site for anyone who is internet savvy.

But we continue to provide this information with emphasis in hopes our readers will realize and appreciate the relationship between commerce and government services. Also the health of a local municipality is directly connected to the economy of its businesses, especially retail.

With that in mind it is apparent that smaller hamlets in and near our county continue to suffer from economic woes, some surely tied to the state of our economy as a whole, and others maybe unique to each situation.

For a short while there were increases in many small towns due to what I called “The Dollar General” effect.

That company has set up small “Walmart” type places in locations often ignored by larger companies.

Grocery items, school supplies, clothing, light bulbs, etc. can be obtained by the native culture without using the fuel or fighting traffic and hoards at the big box operations.
But now that those stores have become established most local small towns are again seeing a decline in tax revenue.

At some point high speed internet may help equalize the movement of information and give boost to rural living and allow more mom and pop shops to better survive in the hoo-hollows. Let’s hope it’s not too late for us.