Judy Desetti loves Lawrence too much to spend her shopping dollars out of town.

The library media specialist at New York School buys her furniture at Blue Heron, her wheelbarrow at Westlake Ace Hardware, her laminate flooring at Kring’s Interiors, her activewear at Sunflower Outdoor and Bike Shop, her stereo equipment at Kief’s Audio Video Inc. and her coffee at Z’s Divine Espresso and La Prima Tazza.

She’s been to Oak Park Mall in Overland Park only once during the nearly seven years she’s lived in Lawrence, and wouldn’t dream of setting foot in any major department store outside the city limits.

She wants her dollars to go to work at home.

“I really, truly believe that anything I want is here,” said Desetti, who dropped by the Yarn Barn with her daughter last week to pick up supplies. “And buying here makes our community a lot more vital. It enhances our community. It increases revenues for our schools. It increases revenue for our city, for the beautiful parks and bike trails and everything else.

“I don’t know that everybody in Lawrence really appreciates what we’ve got. We do.”

Lawrence business leaders are working to convince more city residents to follow Desetti’s line of thinking and, more important, buying.

Sales-tax revenues on rise

As shoppers open up their wallets to buy gifts this holiday season, leaders of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce are wrapping up their first calendar year of a campaign designed to encourage people to buy local.

And it may be working.

Less than a year into the chamber’s “Start Here” campaign, Lawrence’s sales-tax revenues are on pace to top last year’s collections. Through November, the city had received $17.46 million in proceeds from citywide and countywide sales taxes, up nearly 6 percent from the $16.43 million collected through November last year.

Such revenues are only part of the formula confirmed by a recent study conducted for the chamber. The study, from Policy Research Institute at Kansas University, found that the city reaped $198 in benefits for every $100 spent for goods and services from businesses in Lawrence.

The expenditures not only generate sales taxes for local governments, but also allow businesses to hire more employees, buy more local products and hire more local services, said Lynn Parman, the chamber’s vice president for economic development.

“It’s supporting local business owners, and keeping them in business,” Parman said. “And it’s supporting the public services that are offered in the community. You’re investing in local services, and investing in your future and your families’ future.”

Sales-tax revenues finance the purchase, development and operations of city parks, plus the operations of the Lawrence Police Department and Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical. A share of the countywide sales tax continues to pay off Douglas County’s debt on the Douglas County Jail, and both governments use some of the money to pay off the debt on the Community Health Facility, a building that is home to the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, Douglas County Visiting Nurses Assn. and Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center.

Community values

There also are countless ancillary benefits, said John Ross, owner of Laser Logic: Businesses in Lawrence employ people who coach youth sports teams, finance social-service agencies and sponsor community events such as Saturday’s Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade.

“Dell Computer isn’t sending us money to do that,” said Ross, who cited studies showing that Internet purchases had drained $73 million in annual sales from Kansas. “Neither is Amazon.com or Lands’ End.”

Such lessons soon could be expanding into Lawrence public schools, where young buyers would be instructed in the benefits of shopping local. The chamber’s Small Business Council is putting together a program scheduled to start this spring in a classroom at West Junior High School, then spread into other schools.

The idea isn’t to browbeat people into disregarding cost, convenience or any other factor in making a shopping decision, Ross said.

“We’re just trying to say, ‘Look. Listen. See what’s happening here,'” Ross said. “When you spend your dollars, spend with some thought.”

Leaders such as Ross acknowledge that the “Start Here” campaign is an uphill battle.

Reversing ‘pull factor’

Douglas County actually loses more spending dollars than it takes in, according to a recent study from David Darling, an economics professor at Kansas State University. The county has a “retail pull factor” of 0.96, based on a year of sales-tax data through July; the number means that the county attracts 96 cents in spending for every $1 that goes elsewhere.

Desetti, the librarian with the buy-local credo, is hoping that Lawrence residents can reverse that trend, especially now that the city offers so many shopping options — SuperTarget, Kohl’s, Best Buy and Home Depot among them.

Price is not an object, she said.

“Sometimes you have to determine that your values are more important than saving a dollar,” she said. “To me, serving my community — and helping the town we live in — is important enough for me to spend my tax dollar here.”