Todd Kuhns on City Council

With the current discussions regarding the city’s fuel bid, some people are wondering why our policy today does not consider MFA Oil a “local business,” even though they employ local people and have a plant in Kirksville.

The point of a local preference policy is to keep dollars circulating within our community. One way we can keep money from leaving town is to support businesses that distribute all or most of their profits back into people and businesses that are within our community. Corporate chains, although they may be locally owned and employ people from the community, often end up sending a good deal of their profits to corporate offices, or buying their products from non-local suppliers, for example. 

While the exact numbers change from study to study, the research appears to agree that the local economy gets a bigger bang for its buck from “local businesses” than “corporate chains.” For example: 

• A Chicago study found that locally owned businesses generate 70% more local economic impact per square foot than chain stores.
• A study in Maine found that every $100 spent at a local business generated about $45 of additional economic activity in the local area, versus $14 from a big-box store.

So the definition of “local business” in our local preference policy needs to include to the businesses that keep the most money WITHIN our community, while remaining relatively straightforward for city staff to research. Our current definition – that a “local business” is one whose corporate office is within 30 miles of the Kirksville city limits – keeps the chain stores – such as Wal-Mart – from getting a competitive advantage. We love those places and we’re glad they’re here, but if we’re going to give a bidding advantage to one group over another, we need to get the biggest economic bang for our buck.

The council realizes that our definition may not be perfect, so we’re always open to examining it. This meeting with MFA Oil on Monday will give us a good opportunity to consider whether it needs refining (no pun intended).

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