Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Acuff's calendar sells across the globe via Internet

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Tuesday, January 25, 2000

Acuff's calendar sells across the globe via Internet
Also: Tax rebate makes Petronila 7,740 percent richer in 2000
By Tara Copp
Caller-Times

With her calendar selling all over the world and the 2000 Olympics on the horizon, former Calallen high jumper Amy Acuff is quite the model athlete.
   Acuff's project, The TrackGirls Year 2000 Calendar, features her and 11 other female track athletes in a variety of nude or semi-nude poses in black-and-white photographs. It's not available in local retail stores but is for sale at the Web site www.vaultstuff.com for $15. Half of the proceeds are benefiting the Florence Griffith-Joyner Foundation.
   "It is fun to see that orders have come in from all over the world: Europe, South Africa, South America and Japan. The athletes and I agreed that we wanted half the proceeds to go to charity, so it won't be significantly rewarding financially for us. However, we are all pleased with the product and feel it is a unique documentary of elite track and field athletes."
   Acuff said she didn't know how many calendars had sold, and her mother, Jackie Acuff, would not divulge any numbers.
   Like volleyball-star-turned-supermodel Gabrielle Reece, Acuff's athletic background is attracting several fashion editors who want more than a pretty face. She is in the current edition of CosmoGirl, and is scheduled to shoot for Glamour and Self magazines next month, she said.
   "I think the interest of the women's magazines in me as a high jumper has been piqued by the upcoming Olympic Games," she said. "NBCOlympics.com is tracking my season with a more personal insight. Also, I am terribly excited about the next issue of Vogue, which will feature me along with several other Olympic athletes."
   But a pretty face doesn't hurt, and in the down time between graduating from UCLA in 1997 and beginning medical school, she has "earned spare money doing modeling gigs in L.A."
   "Most of these jobs have not used me in the context of 'Amy Acuff, celebrity high jumper,' " she said.
   "It's good work when you can get it and the time demands are min uscule compared to a nine-to-five job."
   On her agenda: Olympic gold.
   "My next business is to start leaping like a giant flea," she said.
   Sales tax revenues
   The first sales tax rebates of 2000 are out, and most cities in South Texas are starting 2000 with more money than last year.
   Especially Petronila, population 200: It's starting the year 7,740 percent richer.
   The city's annual sales tax revenue hovers around $10,000 in good years and $5,000 in bad years. At $4,484, 1999 was a bad year. The city lost thousands after Belk's Country Store closed its doors Dec. 31, 1998, to avoid the 1999 tax rolls. January 1999's total rebates: $14.97.
   January 2000's influx of $1,173 may be a one-time deal, said Sheila Clancy, spokeswoman for Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander.
   "Their tax rebate increased because of a one-time sale by an out-of-state taxpayer," Clancy said. "We sent a letter with the rebate saying it was a one-time windfall, and for them to expect to return to normal levels next month."
   A normal monthly rebate for Petronila, which has only a handful of businesses, is a few hundred dollars.
   Belk is still trying to sell his country store, which has been part of the town since the 1920s. He closed in 1998 because he owed thousands to the Internal Revenue Service. He said there has been some interest in the store and the piles of rusted furniture and cars on his property, but no takers.
   "There's been one or two parties asking about the store, but nobody's come back with any money," Belk said. The IRS is giving Belk more time to sell the store, but that is difficult "because the penalties and interest keep going up," he said.
   Corpus Christi's numbers
   Corpus Christi started 2000 with a 15 percent sales tax rebate increase. The city is five months into its annual budget, which started in September. In December the city's rebates jumped 24 percent, so the possibility of an uphill trend is leaving the city's budget planners "cautiously optimistic."
   "The first three months of the budget year we were behind sales tax estimated revenue by about $200,000," said Rudy Garza, assistant director of management and budget for the city. "Now the last two months have negated that and we are slightly above our revenue projection."
   A city's sales tax rebate is the amount of tax revenue a city collects after the state takes its share. Depending on whether a business reports sales on a monthly or quarterly basis, it will then send all sales taxes (both local and state taxes) to Austin. The comptroller takes out the state's portion, and sends the rest back to the cities.
   The next big figures for the city will come in February. Those numbers will reflect December's holiday spending and could clue the budget planners into how healthy the city's sales tax revenues will be this year. Then the planners will look to Spring Break spending, Garza said.
   "It looks promising," he said. "The last two sales tax payments been very encouraging. But based on two-month experience it's difficult to say whether we've made tremendous progress. We're cautiously optimistic."



On Retailing is published every other Tuesday in the Caller-Times business section. The column includes news of new, relocated and expanded businesses in the Coastal Bend, plus retailing trends and profiles. Ideas may be submitted to: On Retailing, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, P.O. Box 9136, Corpus Christi, Texas 78469; e-mail Tara Copp at coppt@caller.com; fax items to (361) 886-3732; or call (361) 886-4316.

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