By Nathan Straus
nstraus@jacksonvilleprogress.com
The Jacksonville Rotary Club heard from Darrell Prcin, Jacksonville Economic Development Corp. president, on economic issues important to the city Wednesday. Among the items Prcin touched upon was alcohol sales in Rusk.
Prcin said Rusk’s sales tax allocation was up in November from November of last year by 44.39 percent.
“Everyone knows why Rusk is up,” Prcin said. “It’s the beer and wine sales.”
Rusk had a sales tax allocation of $79,481.51 in November 2009. Last year in November, the total was $55,045.30. To date, the city has received $569,887.57. This is a 13.21 percent increase over last year’s figure through November, which came to $503,374.41.
Jacksonville also increased a little since last year, though not by such a drastic amount. In November, Jacksonville received $300,787.56, which is a 2.21 percent increase over last year’s $294,268.69. Overall, the city has seen a 3.97 percent increase over the 2008 total through November, which is $2,781,186.40.
Figures from Henderson and Tyler show substantial percentage decreases over last year; 27.52 percent and 12.87 percent, respectively.
Rotary members met Wednesday at Sadler’s Kitchen for lunch as part of the group’s regular meeting.
Prcin opened the meeting by stating he was proud of the community.
“We have got a lot going in our favor,” he said. “The schools have gotten some great notoriety in the last few months.”
On the unemployment front, Prcin relayed figures from the Texas Workforce Commission which stated Cherokee County has an unemployment rate of 9.4 percent.
“We’re not quite at the national level but we’re not too far from it,” he said.
Last year’s unemployment rate for October was 6.9 percent. This year it’s 9.4 percent. This is, however, down slightly from September’s 9.7 percent rate.
Though Prcin said Jacksonville and Cherokee County have entered some rough times, he added there is hope on the horizon.
“We will get through this,” Prcin said. “I think in 2010 we’ll start to see a little increase.”
