A chamber of commerce group's plan to ask voters in November for a quarter-cent sales tax increase faltered Monday after disagreements arose among the panel's members.
At a meeting of the chamber's ECO2 group, key members questioned the plan's future after the group's chairman proposed scrapping a provision that would require the new sales tax money to be divided equally between industrial development and preserving open space.
Chairman Kelvin Heck said instead of the 50-50 spending formula, he wanted to make a general commitment that the tax be spent for both efforts, but with no specific wording in any document requiring equal sums be spent.
Heck also said he wanted to change the proposal from a quarter-cent sales tax that would end in 10 years, to a five-year quarter-cent sales tax that would then be reduced to a tenth-of-a-cent sales tax continuing indefinitely.
"We're restricting ourselves pretty seriously when we say this will be split 50-50 forever," Heck said. "Just as sure as we're sitting here, people are going to say that was a stupid idea.
"They're going to ask why we ever thought these would need to be equal forever."
Environmental concerns
Open-space proponents on the committee strongly objected to Heck's suggested changes. They said they would have to rethink their support for the entire program, if Heck's views prevail.
"I don't think the environmental community or myself will stay on board if we don't have the type of equality that we have been talking about for months now," said County Commissioner Charles Jones, also a member of ECO2.
The tax increase, as originally proposed, would generate an estimated $2 million a year to be used for the group's goal of creating 12,000 new industrial jobs over the next 10 years while preserving prime environmental, scenic and historical properties throughout the county.
Heck asked members to consider his changes and be prepared to decide at the group's Feb. 5 meeting. Several other members supported Heck's suggested change to the plan's equal-spending clause.
Hindering development?
ECO2 member Sherry Schaub said equally dividing dollars spent between industrial development and open space would hinder economic development.
"I think at the end of the day, you have a greater need for dollars in industrial space because it takes infrastructure in addition to land to make it work," Schaub said. "I'm not suggesting we don't do something for open space. I'm just suggesting that we're creating some real barriers to be effective."
Jones and other open-space advocates on the committee questioned that, saying sale of industrial land could generate profits for the group to use.
Some also questioned whether the plan would be politically viable without the guarantee of equal spending.
"I think open space will sell to the public," said ECO2 member Kelly Kindscher. "I think it will be a much tougher sale if this becomes just about getting money for businesses."
The proposal must win two of three votes from the county commission before it can be placed on the ballot, and Jones said he would rethink his support for the plan if it continues down the path Heck proposed.
"I think the tone has shifted from real cooperation to different interests competing for the money," Jones said. "Instead of each side taking half of the loaf, we may create a situation where neither side gets any bread."
Also on Monday, Jones' fellow county commissioners said they were "leery" of the sales tax proposal. Commissioners Bob Johnson and Jere McElhaney said they had received some negative feedback from constituents.
Both commissioners said the plan would need to make sense to them before they would agree to place it on the ballot for the public to decide.
"I don't want to hide behind this idea of letting the voters decide," Johnson said. "They elected us to make some of these decisions."
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