The office of Hammond Mayor Mayson Foster announced Oct. 9 that sales tax revenue collections for September are up more than four percent since September of last year. According to economics professor Dr. Yu Hsing, an increase like this reflects that our local economy is doing well.
“I believe that this increase is due to the many new businesses that have appeared in Hammond like Academy, which opened I think only four months ago,” said Foster. “Also, the Shop at Home Projects made by the Hammond Chamber of Commerce, which encourage our citizens to stay and shop in Tangipahoa and factor.”
According to Hsing, population, the number of jobs and the income of workers are the variables that help indicate an economically healthy community.
“When all of these things line up, it shows that the community is healthy,” said Hsing. “Hammond appears to have healthy numbers for all of tax.”
Hsing also attributed the rise in collections to, oddly enough, Tangipahoa unemployment rate, which is around nine percent.
“We benefit in a way from the lower unemployment rates of neighboring parishes,” said Hsing. “Many people that live in Tangipahoa work in other parishes where work is easier to find, like St. Tammany which has an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent or Livingston with seven percent, and then come back home to spend their costs.”