WBHM Politics: When Retailers Close, Taxes Go Too
When you buy something at a store, that sticker price is not all you pay. There’s sales tax added on top. In Alabama, a portion goes to the state and a portion goes to local governments. For a small town with a big retailer, that can be major source of revenue. But when stores close, it can mean a hit to city coffers. It’s what happened in Fairfield when a Walmart closed in 2016. Irondale faces a similar situation after Sam’s Club announced in January it would shutter a store there.
We discuss how smaller cities and towns cope when a significant source of tax dollars disappears with Fairfield City Councilman Eddie Penny, Irondale Mayor Charles Moore and research analyst Megan Randall with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute.
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From painting to producing: Birmingham DJ Andrea Really releases first album
Birmingham DJ Andrea Really wasn't always a music producer. She used to be a prolific painter. But when her art studio burned down in 2017, she pivoted careers. Really spoke with WBHM about that journey upon the release of her first album this summer, called Zeitgeist.
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