The latest SLO City sales tax figures for the all-important fourth quarter (2009) show additional softening but at a much slower rate.

Sales tax receipts were down 4.9 percent from fourth quarter 2008, and 2008 was already down 9.9 percent from the peak in 2007. Grim news? Not compared to the double-digit quarterly decreases for the rest of the year.

Nationally, retail sales have been rebounding into positive territory during the first quarter of this year. So there’s a good chance SLO will finally show increases when those figures are released in late June.

Several other factors could also help longer term.

Target, which broke ground earlier this month for its nearly 140,000-square-foot store, plans to begin building this summer with the intent of opening its doors by late spring-summer of 2011.

And Old Navy, which is hosting a grand re-opening of its San Luis Obispo store on April 24, reportedly spent nearly $1 million on an entire remodel of the store.