The expenses are ongoing, but the income is decreasing. The people who are left wind up paying more taxes to cover the people that are coming in and using the services. With fewer people paying residential-type taxes, commercial and industrial businesses will have to pick up more of the cost of running the city through business and occupation taxes, Thornburgh said. We have to get more commercial activities within the city in order to support it. More Pullman Square-type things to draw people in here to support the core.
People still depend on it.
Thornburgh said the trend of people moving out of cities may be unavoidable, but Richard Dixon, director of planning and development, sees it as a trend that will naturally reverse itself. We all know what the national trends are for the last few decades. People want larger homes on larger lots. The truth is in the city of Huntington, except for the hills areas, you don t find that. As with any trend, it will eventually swing the other way.