1-cent tax increase falls flat
By Staff
Leada Gore, Hartselle Enquirer
A plan to increase Hartselle’s sales tax by a penny isn’t finding many supporters among members of the City Council.
Mayor Dwight Tankersley introduced the plan this week, pledging the money generated by the increase to fund a bond issue for a new high school and pay for capital improvement projects.
In 2007, the city gave the school an appropriation of $54,463 and paid $937,892 in bond payments for the system. Tankersley said a 1-cent sales tax increase would generate some $1.49 million annually. Under his plan, the city would dedicate the total $2.33 million towards a $30.5 million bond issue to fund construction of the new high school. That money would represent the total school appropriation from the city.
The remaining money - some $153,355 - would go towards city capital improvement projects.
Tankersley’s proposal comes on the heels of a proposal by the Hartselle City School Board to increase property taxes by 12.5 mills. The majority of the council approved the resolution to send the proposal to the State Legislature to set the date for a referendum but Councilman Bill Drake voted against the measure. Morgan County’s legislative delegation has a long-standing policy of not introducing measures that aren’t unanimously approved by the council.
A property tax increase takes a vote of the people for approval; the council can pass a sales tax on its own.
The council first looked at the plan at its work session Monday night. Council members, many of whom spoke out against new taxes when they ran for election, were hesitant to commit to a sales tax increase.
Other council members said they would like to school system to trim its costs and contribute more to the construction costs.
For councilman Mark Mizzel, the matter was more clear-cut.
Councilman Bill Smelser said his experience in office had led him to believe some form of tax increase will be necessary not just to build a new school but to keep the city moving forward as well.
The council has not set a date or even said if it would take an official vote on the sales tax proposal. Time has run out, however, on the property tax, as failure to unanimously pass a resolution at Tuesday night’s meeting left the city without enough time to get it through the Legislature during its current session.
