Well it's Monday and the start of another week, when much to my surprise I received a call from Mayor A.C. Wharton. Just to clarify things I believe the mayor to be a good man of integrity that is in a difficult situation. But today's call caught me off guard as Mayor Wharton expressed disappointment in the petition being circulated. He alleged it was misleading and was upset that we didn't mention the Mayors recommendation to rebate a percentage back to the taxed restaurants for those that provide health insurance. No where in the resolution does it say there will be a rebate. I also didn't mention the Mayors statement that this tax was a temporary tax- I guess much like the wheel tax was temporary. The Mayor also said this money was not for the general fund and this temporary tax would require approval every 5 years or so. I guess as soon as we pay the 1.4 billion dollar debt we are off the hook!
Let's talk about a couple of things that the resolution does say such as :"WHERE AS Preliminary projections show that Shelby County Government will begin it's FY 2009 budget process looking at a minimum of a fourteen million ($14,000,000.00 ) deficit." Why is this in the resolution if the funds are not to cover budget shortfalls? Please understand I was educated in Arkansas so it may be over my head!!!
And one of my favorites: "WHERE AS such a tax is largely discretionary because those who don't want to pay it can choose not to dine out and much of the financial burden is shifted to the out-of town visitor." Where did they come up with this?
At a time when our President and Congress are providing rebates to stimulate the economy, placing a $28,000,000.00 burden on our industry and the citizens of our community is the wrong way to help Shelby County grow.
And lastly I am not questioning the Mayors integrity and appreciate the Mayor not questioning mine.
Danny Sumrall
MRA Spokesman
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7 comments:
Hello all: I sent the petition to several of my family, friends and collegues, one of whom is my cousin, Dottie Jones, who works in the county Mayors office. She sent this reply to all of my email recipients. I found it reprehensible but, more than that, disturbing becasue it contained the same flawed reasoning behind the resolution. Do they think for one minute that they can justify raising property taxes in response to a budget deficit? Sounds illegal to me, but I wouldn't put it past them. Also I felt her tone rather threatening: This doesn't pass and we go after you Hutton property owners! I just hope Mayor Wharton is not as liberal in his politics as my dear cousin. Here is her email response which she also copied to Mayor Wharton:
Dear Katie,
Thanks for the email. I understand the concerns of the restaurant industry. I propose that maybe, just maybe, the real story hasn’t been told.
Do you understand that if the county has no option other than raising your property taxes, the tax bill on your home, appraised at $1,038,200 and assessed at $259,550, will increase by over $250 from $10,485.82 to 10745.37?
A food and beverage tax of 2 pennies per dollar would cost the average individual about $22 per year. Granted, you probably eat in restaurants more than most people, but you would have to spend an additional $12,500 per year in restaurants to equal the extra property taxes you will have to pay if we are not able to implement this tax. You have a choice about eating out, and I daresay you do not want increase your restaurant expenses by over $100 per moth. You have no choice about your property taxes...unless you are willing to give up your very highly valued home.
According to the Assessor’s office, there are 67 properties listed to the Hutton family (business and personal). I have not calculated the value of all of those properties, but if I did, I would venture a guess that the increase in property taxes to the Hutton family and businesses alone would be very substantial. Much more than they spend in restaurants. Do you want a property tax increase that you cannot control, or would you rather have a food and beverage tax that you could avoid if you chose not to eat in restaurants?
Your choice...but please do the math for yourself and don’t believe all of the rhetoric you hear in the media and on the Internet. A food and beverage tax will not hurt our Shelby County citizens near as much as an increase in the property taxes that will be required to balance our budget.
I challenge each of the recipients of your email to calculate the increase they would experience in property taxes vs. the extra 2 pennies they might spend per dollar in a restaurant and tell me if they would rather pay the mandatory property tax or the extra (and controllable) food and beverage tax.
Dottie Jones has clearly crossed a line here. I have estimated that the 2% tax increase will cost my family around $250.00 (and we are only an average family that enjoys dining out regularly). The County Commissioners have grossly underestimated the amount that the average person spends dining out. Also, they should understand that we have a copy of the budget (posted on this website) and we can see that the majority of the deficit is caused by raises and benefits increases. Why should they be able to give or receive raises that they have not earned? I am all for them giving themselves a raise if they can stop overspending and if the raise does not put more of a tax burden on county residents.
Maybe, Dottie is just upset because she won't be getting her 3% raise if this resolution does not pass.
Maybe she should spend less time looking up people's property assessments and more time being productive in her actual job so she can stop wasting taxpayers money!
How dare you, Dottie! Just because there is a deficit, does not mean that your boss and the commissioners automatically get to tax Shelby County citizens to make up for it. This is not a dictatorship!
Keep it up and you will have no one left to tax. People will stop going out to eat forcing restaurants to close and their employees to loose their jobs and file bankruptcy. Try USING your brain. Do not threaten anymore citizens for exercising their right to free speech.
If this is how the mayor and the people of his office behave then I am ashamed to live in Shelby County.
Dottie Jones you owe everyone that you sent this e-mail to a huge apology and you should be ashamed of yourself!
By the way, I didn't want to leave my name on my last comment because, God knows, I don't want Dottie Jones to get it into her head to start looking up my property value!
The response left by Dottie Jones is almost laughable if it weren't so frightening. It's almost like she's saying to choose how we are going to tax you. Here's an idea- how about staying within your budget so you don't have to place the burden of your incompetence on a single industry, many of which are small businesses?
Say this resolution comes to be law and the 2% tax is instituted and the county gets the money it desires from these tax dollars, then they have another $15 million dollar shortfall because they couldn't manage the budget again. Do they raise the tax to 4% or 8%? It's a very slippery slope and could damage the industry that makes this city so unique. If I were the mayor or on the county commission, I would be careful next time I went out to eat- I've always been told to not mess with the people that handle your food!
Hello again. It's me, Katie Hutton. I didn't post my name last time but I thought you all would have figured it out. I left out the last few lines of Dottie's email so here they are: "Now...if you want to counter with this argument with the assertion that we should cut the budget instead of raising taxes, I have even more compelling information to share. Just give me an opportunity to share. Thanks for listening!"
I must say that I have gotten some suppportive emails saying they thought the email Dottie sent out was rather offensive. I just wonder if we should call her on her "compelling information"? I don't really want you to cut the budget, Dottie (although that would be great); just balance the one you have. Thanks all...
Let us all be reminded of some of he other recent taxes that have been placed on the citizens of Shelby County.
1. The fire fee on all vacant land
2. The "water runoff" fee to fund additional sewer construction. It is aded to the MLG&W bill.
3. The additional rodent and mosquito fee added to your utility bill.
4. The new "signage" inspection fee if you have any sign at all facing any road.
I would like to hear Mayor Wharton's response to "Dottie's" email. I just can not believe the Mayor could even condone the action
Has anybody in the Mayor's office taken a look at the sales decreases in this industry over the past 3 months? I'm here to tell you that it's going to get worse before it gets better, so how much revenue do they really expect?
As we all know we are getting ready to take another hit on minimum wage in July.
ENOUGH ALREADY...
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