The Grass Valley City Council received an update on the economy and inflation at their meeting Tuesday night. Joan Michaels Aguilar, from HdL Companies, is the city’s sales tax consultant. And she says there’s still a lot of uncertainty. That includes continued hiring challenges in the hospitality sector which is one of the largest for the local area, especially restaurants and hotels…

click to listen to Joan Michaels Aguilar

Aguilar also notes how inflation has raised costs and wages for businesses. And that’s resulted in such things as increasingly higher menu prices at restaurants, which are a major sales tax revenue source for the town. Meanwhile, Councilmember Hillary Hodge is confident about resiliency. She says small businesses continue to be the backbone of the local economy in more ways than one…

click to listen to Hillary Hodge

Aguilar also mentioned that gas prices have not dropped as much this year as hoped and are on the rise again, which also reduces disposable income to spend on local businesses. The updates are part of the Council’s longterm goals of achieving economic development and vitality, as well as high-performance government and quality service.