Our country’s economic recession has affected everyone.

Jemison Mayor Eddie Reed, though, is happy to say his city has weathered the storm quite well.

According to a presentation by Yolanda Watkins, a regional account manager with Revenue Discovery Systems, Jemison’s sales tax revenue has dropped 2 percent since 2007.

“Some cities are down 30 percent,” Watkins told the Jemison City Council on Feb. 15.

“You don’t want to say you’re down, but at least you’re not down by that much.”

Almost one-quarter of Jemison’s sales tax revenue comes from grocers, according to the RDS report. The next biggest contributor is gas stations, with 16 percent; then limited-service restaurants, with 15 percent; and then discount department stores, with nine percent.

Reed said the city’s diverse tax base is what has allowed it, so far, to withstand the economic downturn.

“That is due to the fact that we don’t have the big malls or the strip malls,” Reed said. “We have done extremely well.”

The city has seen the number of tax-paying businesses increase from 600 in 2004 to 1,500 in 2009.