Louisville, Colorado Sales Tax Problems

As a Realtor, I make it a point to point out the pluses and minuses to my Clients of anything they are considering.  One of the discussions we always have is about the different cities in our area and what each City has as its challenges and problems.

For a few years now I have been saying how Louisville has a Sales Tax Problem since a lot of the new retail stores have been opening in other cities and the existing retail stores in Louisville have had slow sales or have closed their doors.

Yesterday, the sales tax problem in Louisville affected me personally.  It was a very hot summer day, bright and sunny in the mid 90's.  My daughters said they wanted to go swimming in the afternoon so we put on our bathing suits, packed our towels and some snacks and headed to the Memory Square Pool in downtown Louisville.  It's one of our favorite spots in the summer since it's so convenient for us and a lot of my Daughters friends are there which makes it nice for us.

So, we get to the pool and we find out the pool has closed for the summer.  And in fact, they closed last weekend which is three weeks before Labor Day when most swimming pools close.  I could not believe it!  We had to drive out to Broomfield to swim at "The Bay" which was a farther drive and more expensive.

And the 4th of July Fireworks this year and 4th of July picnic were cancelled due to lack of funds.

In the past year, Louisville has lost three retail stores which represented a good chunk of the sales tax revenue for the City.  I have not heard of any other stores moving in to take their place.  Pics below of the stores which have closed.

I know the City of Louisville is banking on Conoco Phillips' opening of their Alternative Energy Research Facility and how this will help Louisville's economic woes.  I hate to have all of our eggs in one basket banking on this one company.  What happens if they decide to not build their facility here?  I have lived in Louisville since 1996 and our City has a great reputation--Money Magazine picked us the #1 City to Live in the U.S. recently.  But, if we do not solve the sales tax issue we are going to start losing more and more city services for the residents.  And then people will not be as enthusiastic about moving to Louisville like have in the past.

This used to be a Sam's Club in Louisville

This used to be a Safeway store in Louisville.

This used to be a Checker Parts auto store.