Archive for Thursday, November 5, 2009
Edwardsville residents vote no to proposed sales tax increase
Janet Faircloth votes Tuesday during the Edwardsville sales tax election. The proposed increase failed to pass.
November 5, 2009
Edwardsville residents voted no Tuesday in a special election regarding an increase in the city’s sales tax.
Much to the disappointment of city officials, of the 350 voters who participated in the election, 185, or 52.86 percent, voted no to increase Edwardsville’s sales tax by a half of a cent.
“Obviously we’re disappointed with that outcome,” said Michael Webb, Edwardsville city administrator. “We felt like this was more or less a transient tax that would have given some relief to our property taxes and enhanced our basic public services.”
On the opposite side, 165 voters, or 47.14 percent, were in favor of the increase. There is a total of 2,806 registered voters in Edwardsville.
Edwardsville’s sales tax will now stay at 7.3 percent. If the question had passed, city officials had estimated the increase would have brought in an extra $100,000 in income for city operations.
“Without (the increased sales tax revenue) it’s going to make for a continued difficult budget,” Webb said. “Whether that means an increase in the mill levy to maintain basic services, we’ll see.”
When working on the 2010 budget, city officials made significant cuts, including the layoff of a city firefighter, due to a sizeable decrease in property valuations.
“I don’t know if we have a lot more areas to cut,” Webb said. “I’m not sure how we’re going to react to the next budget year, but this will certainly have an impact.”
Webb said he saw the sales tax increase as a solution to diversify the city’s tax revenue. Rather than increasing resident’s property taxes, which now seems almost certain with the failed election, Webb said the city was looking for other ways to find much needed revenue.
In many of the city officials’ minds, the sales tax would have had less of an impact on the actual residents of the city unlike increasing property taxes. With most of the city’s sales taxes coming from businesses such as gas stations and TCI Tire, Webb said the majority of the city’s sales tax revenue came from visitors who passed through on Kansas Highway 32 or Interstate 435.
“I’m not sure that message got across as well as it could have,” Webb said.
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Point of View
The postal service is cutting back hours at some rural post offices. How often do you go to the post office?
“For my own personal use, I only go a couple times a year to mail gifts, usually around Christmas and family birthdays. At that time I usually buy a couple books of stamps that last for most of the year! For professional use, I go a couple times a month to check our PO Box.”
Comments
triedntru (anonymous) says…
Here's my problem with what Webb said:
“I don’t know if we have a lot more areas to cut,” Webb said.
You don't know?
So, what the city government is essentially saying is that you (the city) went to the public asking for a tax increase and you had no flippin' clue if you could scrape up the cash through other means?
The ball is back in your court. No easy money for you.
Go ahead and raise property taxes. I enjoy watching political suicide in progress.
I walk through city hall and see plenty of opportunities for cost savings. It's obvious when you're footing the bill (like me, a taxpayer).
Do you realize it's cheaper to pay one person overtime than it is to pay two people straight time, both with benefits?
I come from a town the same size as Edwardsville, and it had an entirely volunteer fire department. $10 a fire is what each crew member gets paid. And, contrary to what the union would have you believe, that city has not fallen into utter chaos.
As I have said before, I have not seen the city of Edwardsville take enough cost-cutting measures to warrant going to the public asking for a tax increase.
That's why I voted HELL NO!