Town fights to keep Wal-Mart
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
In the small town of McGehee, the 4,750 residents are trying to convince Wal-Mart officials to keep the store in their community open.
The mayor, Bain Poole, says Wal-Mart approached him a few months ago with news they might phase out the McGehee Wal-Mart to build a big SuperCenter in Dumas, which is about 20 miles away.
The mayor says that could mean a lot of problems for McGehee since 20% of the city`s budget comes from sales tax revenue generated at Wal-Mart.
The McGehee Hospital would also suffer. The C.E.O., John Heard, estimates the hospital gets up to $500,000 a year from sales taxes collected at Wal-Mart. Without that money, the hospital would either have to make big cuts or close.
Right now, Wal-Mart executives are working with the city to see if there is a way to build the Super Center in Dumas, but share some of the sales tax money with McGehee. To do that, the state would have to approve special legislation.
Wal-mart officials say the last thing they want to do is devastate a community that is full of loyal shoppers.
