Landscapers, nursery growers in Grand Rapids expect better 2010, but fear new possible taxes.

Nancy McNab, 53, from Bloomfield Hills, looks for new plants to sell at her business during the Great Lakes Trade Exposition at DeVos Place.

About 5,000 landscapers, nursery growers and related companies gathered this week at the Great Lakes Trade Exposition and talked business. But that number itself, down from 6,000 last year revealed something about how business is going.

“The economy is the reason,” said Amy Frankmann, executive director the expo sponsor Michigan Nursery & Landscape Association. She said most people in the industry predict better times this year, but they still have big concerns, especially with the state considering a new service tax.

“It would devastate our contractors,” Frankmann said. “Customers will not want to pay it. The way things are going, we’re happy to get the business we have. People won’t have the money. It (the tax) could be the deciding factor over whether to have a job done.”

She said a tax once proposed at 6 percent—also would be an accounting nightmare since landscapers already pay sales tax for their nursery stock. It would further the price gap between those who follow the law and those who wiggle out of it, she said. “We’re in times our clients will not allow us to raise our rates that much regardless of the reason,” said Herm Witte, of Witte Lawn Maintenance Inc. in Wyoming. “I understand the need for state revenue, but a tax on business revenue in general would affect people more evenly. Why pick and choose industries?”

Nursery growers are also being hit with increased inspection fees, Frankmann said.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture raised rates on a schedule of annual inspections by 20 percent in July and might raise them again, she said. Some growers of landscape plants said they haven’t been as hard-hit by the economy. Carrie Chrisinske, a sales representative for Sawyer Nursery Inc., of Hudsonville, said consumers will buy $7 plants in a recession as an economical way to improve their yards, where they are spending more time.

But Vans Pines Nursery, of West Olive, has seen a decrease in its sales of evergreen trees, said grower Don Lowther. “Trees are more expensive,” he said. “Wholesalers are more cautious about purchasing.” But “most” of the 200 exhibitors at the trade show have a good outlook for 2010, said Dave Kellogg, of Hortech Inc., of Spring Lake.

“There will be slow growth, but we’ll get back on track,” he said. A wholesaler, Hortech has held steady in sales to garden centers, but landscapers are finding less business with new construction at a standstill, Kellogg said. The expo, co-sponsored by the Michigan Nursery & Landscape Association and the Michigan Turfgrass Foundation, ended its three-day run. Nursery and perennial plant producers in Michigan generate $291 million in annual sales, giving the state the fifth largest nursery industry in the nation, according to the Michigan Nursery & Landscape Association. Landscape contractors and designers generate $655 million in sales and lawn service and sod growers contribute $272 million to the economy, the according to the association.

Source: The Grand Rapids Press