Twin Falls Idaho is a Sales Tax Generating Machine

The number of homes built in Twin Falls was under 100 in 2011.  Now the same number of houses go up every five weeks.  The figure comes from Twin Falls City Manager Travis Rothweiler.  The growth remains phenomenal.  The city could see almost another three-thousand residents arrive during 2021.  These figures are small compared to some of the tax figures.  Out of town shoppers generate tens of millions of dollars in sales tax revenue.  Yet, the city can only keep less than 10 percent of the figure. 

The amount is so vast, if it stayed here it would wipe out the need for property taxes!

The visitors well more than double the size of the city’s population each day.  Whether working here from outside or coming from elsewhere for the big box stores.

In the short video above, Mr. Rothweiler outlines some other staggering statistics.  Most of the people receiving misdemeanor tickets from city police aren’t from here.  A quarter of the accidents on Blue Lakes Boulevard alone involve visitors.

The City Manager will be joining us again on Newsradio 1310 KLIX and Magic Valley This Morning.  He’ll discuss what a local option tax could do to help reduce property taxes.  Certainly, there are some mixed feelings about the idea and some shoppers say they would stay away.  Many would still keep coming because of the variety of shopping and dining options.

You could argue most cities across the Mountain West would welcome this “dilemma”.  It speaks to the vibrancy of Twin Falls and the Magic Valley.