UPDATE: Socorro citizens plan to hold a rally on Wednesday that is intended to persuade Kroger, the parent company that owns Smith’s grocery, to keep the store open. Yet, I have not heard if they intend to march on Socorro city hall to convince leaders to modify tax and regulation codes.
Socorro, New Mexico is one of the oldest communities in the United States and yet it’s economy is threatened by economic ignorance. One of the town’s grocery stores, Smith’s, has announced that it will close it’s doors in January and the only response from town leaders is to send a letter asking them to continue losing almost $1 million a year by staying open.
There were no proposals for economic incentives or economy building changes to the tax code or the regulations to make Socorro more business friendly, just calls for Smith’s to take one for the team.
Current gross receipts tax is 7.063% and the Affordable Care Act is making the employment of union based 40 hour a week employees very costly but these are not being discussed as part of the problem.
Socorro has not been trying to change it’s economic policies to encourage a business friendly environment. The building and land owners are unwilling to lower the cost of renting or developing land, the city is unwilling to give tax or regulation breaks to new businesses and we have a retail and government centered economy without an industrial base of any kind.
We don’t even have any meat processing capability for the ranchers who bring in a large portion of the areas cattle production in the surrounding counties. If we want three grocery stores we need to make it profitable for them to operate.
