The Douglas County Courthouse and downtown Lawrence are pictured in an aerial photo Saturday, July 13, 2019.
If you remember back in January, the big news was that every man, woman and child would soon be getting a $600 COVID-19 relief check from the federal government. Well, the checks certainly came, and in most Kansas communities, a big boost in spending followed. But that wasn’t the case in Lawrence.
The latest sales tax numbers from Kansas officials show that Lawrence’s business activity is off to the slowest start of any major retail center in the state. That’s been a trend for a couple of months now, but the state’s most recent report showed it more starkly.