Get out of Town

I missed putting this up yesterday due to the terrible importation system on blogger.com. I've been reduced to putting in in ugly tabbed form. Today I'd like to address an item in the Oneida County Sales Tax FAQ. The county means to keep you here when the tax hike goes into effect by pointing out the futility of a 20 mile trip for $100 worth of goods. The most ironic part is probably that a cost of an extra 50 cents will keep you from going while an 18% jump in sales tax won't affect your shopping habits.

I did a little calculation using my Rand McNally Route Planner. Since I support local business, I have calculated distance to the 2 closest out-of-county Wal-Marts and not other business past the boundary. Using the locality map on the Oneida County website, I worked out approximate distances between these areas and either the Oneida or Herkimer Wal-Marts. The bad news: Ava, Boonville, Remsen, Steuben and Forestport are pretty far from either at between 30-40 miles. The good news is that 16 out of 29 communities are less than 20 miles away.

According to their math, anything less than a $250 purchace would lose you money. That loss would be at most $4, compared to the warm feeling you get telling Joe Griffo where he can put his tax increase

Origin (Oneida Co.)....Destination.Miles.Time
Sherrill................Oneida.......3... 5
Vernon..................Oneida.......6.. 10
Verona..................Oneida.......6.. 12
Paris...................Herkimer....10.. 21
Vienna..................Oneida......12.. 20
Rome....................Oneida......14.. 24
Westmoreland............Oneida......14.. 17
Augusta.................Oneida......15.. 26
Utica...................Herkimer....15.. 15
Annsville (Taberg)......Oneida......17.. 31
Sangerfield.............Herkimer....17.. 33
Bridgewater.............Herkimer....18.. 29
Camden..................Oneida......19.. 32
Floyd...................Oneida......19.. 31
New Hartford............Herkimer....19.. 19
Whitestown..............Herkimer....19.. 21
Deerfield (approx)......Herkimer....20.. 20
Lee.....................Oneida......20.. 34
Marshall(Oriskany Falls.Oneida......21.. 34
Marcy...................Herkimer....22.. 26
Florence................Oneida......26.. 47
Trenton.................Herkimer....26.. 26
Western (Westernville)..Oneida......26.. 48
Kirkland................Herkimer....27.. 28
Ava.....................Oneida......30.. 52
Boonville...............Herkimer....30.. 52
Remsen..................Herkimer....31.. 36
Steuben.................Herkimer....35.. 45
Forestport..............Herkimer....40.. 51