While working on our Walmart post earlier today, The Observer wondered just how much that impressive sounding $165 million was actually draining from the city’s tax coffers. We did a little poking around but to no avail. Enter our heroes at the Drum Major Institute.
They point out that the city’s total taxable retail expenditures in New York City from 2008 to 2009 was $31.3 billion. Walmart’s share of that would come out to less than one-half of 1 percent.
At the same time, if you crunch the numbers, at the current 8.875 percent sale tax, Walmart would make the city and state $14,643,750 per year. That’s money that could be desperately put to good use.
This neglects the fact that unions and politicians are fighting Walmart so hard because they believe the store will put competing retailers and their better-paid employees out of business. So once again, while it seems like Walmart could be a boon for the city, the costs still appear to be much higher than the rewards.
