How much of the economic crisis is real and how much of it is perpetuated by the media-battered confidence of the American consumer?
Last November, for more than an entire month after Wall Street lost its nerve (and again here we acknowledge the underlying and actual illness plaguing the financial sector) Prattans were unconvinced that anything at all was really wrong with the economy. Sales tax revenue for the city of Pratt in that month was stronger than last year.
Because the state is sometimes inconsistent in remitting sales tax revenues to municipalities, City Clerk Diana Garten won’t know until next month the exact figures for November or how freely Pratt residents spent during the heart of the holiday shopping season in December. Still, the performance of consumers through October and November showed no hint of the disaster that has unfolded since then. Pratt held out against the crisis of confidence far longer than other locales.
Now, however, businesses are tightening their belts as evidenced by the Kansas Legislature’s efforts to trim more than $200 million from the state budget in anticipation of lower tax revenues. Once infected with Wall Street’s gloom, industry and the consumer will require time to recover.
There are signs that opportunity still exists, that money can still be made and Pratt can still expand. Rod Seidel and Blake Himmelwright are making an effort to develop real estate on Pratt’s north border. The City Commission has encouraged them.
A little confidence remains. May it grow.
