Minutes of the
Muscogee County School Board/City Council
Joint Tax Committee Meeting
February 21, 2006
Present members of the Tax Committee: Fife Whiteside, James Walker, Mary Sue
Polleys, Red McDaniel, & Wayne Anthony
Absent members: Gary Allen & Skip Henderson
Visitors: City Manager Isaiah Hugley, Deputy City Manager Lisa Goodwin, Chief
Administrator Liz Turner, Clerk of Council Tiny Washington, Angela Cole,
Finance Director, & Dr. Phillips, School Superintendent
Location: Ground floor Conference room of the Government Center.
Meeting began at 1:31p.m.
ORGANIZATION:
The meeting opened with City Manager Hugley advising the members of the Tax
Committee to decide how the committee needs to function. City Manager Hugley
said the group might want to decide whether it would be a meeting where they
just sit around and talk or a meeting where they elect. He also said the one
issue on the table, when we talk about the Joint Tax Committee, is centered on
some discussion that surfaced from non-elected citizens. There was a group that
talked about a joint sales tax and that would be a tax where the city and the
school district would jointly go after a penny. After shortly briefing the
committee, City Manager Hugley then turned the meeting over to Mary Sue
Polleys.
Mary Sue Polleys informed that the door was open for discussion about how they
wanted to proceed. Ms. Polleys asked if there were any suggestions, at that
time, Councilor McDaniel nominated Fife Whiteside for Chairman. Ms. Polleys
added that Fife had attended the meetings with the Citizen?s Group. Councilor
Anthony said that he had also attended those meetings and he would hold the
chair for Fife. Ms. Polleys suggested that Mr. Whiteside hold the chair and
Councilor Anthony could be the backup chair, which was agreed upon by the two
members.
JOINT TAX:
Mr. Whiteside took a few minutes to talk about the history. He stated that
there had been a misunderstanding that the idea of dividing a one-cent sales
tax just recently surfaced, which is not true. He stated that the idea
generally surfaced at the 2003 General Assembly and was discussed again at the
2004 or 2005 General Assembly and David Rothschild was very interested at that
time. Mr. Whiteside explained that the basic concept is that the state of
Georgia takes 4% of sales out of the local sales tax base. He said currently
we have a 3% sales tax, which is affectively local option, and that would be
the city?s SPLOST which will expire sometime toward the beginning of 2009 and
the school district?s SPLOST would expire sometime towards the end of 2008.
That generates the 3% that we have out of local options sales tax, depending on
how you apply the exemptions. Around 90 million dollars is generated by those
3% we have in local option sales tax. He said we need to figure out a way to
divide the 90 million dollars and satisfy the School District?s capital needs,
the City?s capital needs and the City?s operating needs, but within the current
sales tax structure that we have now, we are somewhat hand strung in being able
to provide the money because of the 20% increase.
Ms. Polleys said one thing Mr. Whiteside said that was probably a bit
misleading is the 3 pennies would generate about 90 million dollars. She asked
if it would be more accurate to say, work together around 60 million dollars
because 30 million dollars, which is the City?s permanent operating one cent,
is not in discussion.
Councilor McDaniel asked when could the matter be voted on. In response to
Councilor McDaniel, Mr. Whiteside said this could not be one without a
constitutional amendment and a constitutional amendment can only be taken to
the voters in even years. City Manager Hugley said after December of 2006 we
could go out for another LOST. Councilor McDaniel asked could we get the
legislature to amend that to include the School Board. Ms. Polleys explained
that the Constitution would have to be amended and it could only be done in
2006 or 2008.
Dr. Phillips said he believes that the School District is going to need
something like 221 million dollars of federal funds to build schools to
accommodate the growth that is anticipated on Fort Benning. He then stated
that there is no way they could find funds to do that without some significant
help. He advised that if the School Board doesn?t get any help from the
federal government or the state, the only thing they could do was look for
another SPLOST.
City Manager Hugley informed that the Mayor has expressed his concerns; he
knows that we have the two SPLOSTs, and if both of those were to go away, we
would be at 5%. City Manager Hugley assured Dr. Phillips that his concerns
were heard in terms of what BRAC is going to demand. He explained that the
City would need about 314 million dollars for road and intersection
improvements. He also said that the most pressing need that we have is
operating support, there are no revenue sources to look to other than the
possibility of a local option sales tax that would help us to generate some
money that we could use to support operations that would not go away. City
Manager Hugley affirmed that the Mayor absolutely agrees with and supports the
idea of a joint tax, but he would support that after we are able to go back
after a loss and win the support of the citizens and voters to support the
operation so that we can sustain our government.
City Manager Hugley informed that BRAC is causing growth of 30,000 new
citizens, and it is believed that 75% of those citizens are going to reside in
Muscogee County and with those new citizens; there would be a need to increase
Public Safety and increase garbage collection. Councilor Anthony stated that
he envisioned the top four cent sales tax going to the state, the fifth cent is
the local option sales tax, the sixth cent is the Columbus Consolidated
Government?s SPLOST and the seventh is the Muscogee County School District?s
SPLOST. Ms. Polleys asked would it be a better presentation to the citizens to
say that the seventh penny would be shared in the future as opposed to the two
taxing authorities fighting with each other. She stated that it gives up the
possibility of asking the voters to approve a whole penny. Councilor McDaniel
stated that he thinks the majority of the Council would agree to get the one
cent first and then go for the split.
Mr. Whiteside stated he believes that if the School Board passed a sales tax,
it would make it harder for the city to pass their LOST. Ms. Polleys stated
that citizens would come to her asking, why won?t the City and the School Board
share a penny and her response would be, because the Constitution won?t allow
it, and all it takes is the two parties to agree to ask our legislators to get
that ball rolling. Dr. Phillips advised that there is a sense of urgency; if
we don?t get anything in the legislature now, you?re talking about 2010. Dr.
Phillips explained that he understands the need for operational funds, but the
concerns that he hears most of the time are relating to the permanency of the
penny. He also explained that he thinks people are much more inclined if they
know what the money is going to be used for. Regardless of the need, he thinks
people have some psychological blockage to saying, ?yes I want to put something
there that is going to be there forever?. Councilor McDaniel stated we all
represent the same people and what we need to do is support each other; we have
to work together on it, if not, the citizens are not going to buy it.
Councilor Anthony said he thinks there is still some debate as to whether we
ought to have it as a permanent thing, or do we just go back to the public and
say this is what we are doing. He also stated that it?s their money and we
want to be good stewards of their money.
Dr. Phillips stated said there is only one school system that has not passed
the SPLOST, and that is Fayette County. Dr. Phillips also said, out of every
school district that has won a SPLOST he doesn?t think anybody has ever been
unable to renew it, there might be one or two but for the most part out of the
180 school districts, no one has had a problem going back with a five year
period or some limitation. He said every school district that has renewed it
has passed it and said he thinks we have a better chance of coming back every
five years and renewing something than to say it?s permanent. City Manager
Hugley said as City Manager, he would be very uncomfortable making management
decisions and making commitments about government operations with a thought
that in five or ten years there?s a fifty percent possibility that we may have
to go and undo all of that and if that happens, it is a major setback for our
city. City Manager Hugley also stated with the legislation that is written
today, we would have to go back and amend the state legislation to put a sunset
clause, which would say that we would limit it to ten years. City Manager
Hugley said he would not recommend that we consider a sunset that would put us
in such an awkward position five or ten years from now. City Manager advised
that we have a track record that we need to talk about; we need to talk about
when we instituted the 9 MILL CAP, when we did that it took us from 1976, to a
year ago to get to the 9 MILL CAP. He said he thinks that shows that we have a
very responsible elected body. Councilor Anthony stated, if we present that
picture every year the voters will support it, we need to show the citizens
every year how we are doing it. Dr. Phillips asked was there any way to go back
and revisit the 9 MILL CAP. City Manager Hugley replied by saying yes there
is a way to revisit it, but the question is what would be required. He also
said that would be a decision made by the Mayor and Council, if they would like
to do an ordinance that calls for a referendum, that would be put on the
ballot, the question of lifting the 9 MILL Cap.
City Manager Hugley stated the first step that needs to be taken, is to jointly
agree that penny number six (6) or penny number seven (7) will be for a special
purpose local option sales tax for capital. He also explained that the next
step is to answer the question, is this doable now. Dr. Phillips stated he
thinks it is curable if we, as a board, passed a resolution saying we would
only go after a shared penny and it would only apply to capital. City manager
Hugley agreed to the idea of the resolution being the first step option, but
the process that would be used is the committee jointly drafting the joint
resolution. City Manager Hugley stated this committee would endorse and send
it to the two bodies to review and comment or have a meeting with the two
bodies. Ms. Polleys advised that the committee would have to make a decision
on whether they should move before 2008. City Manager Hugley explained that
there has to be a process. Mr. Whiteside advised that the committee would need
to have something to go to the General Assembly.
Councilor Anthony and Fife Whiteside agreed to work together on drawing up a
resolution and circulating it to all of the committee members. The next
meeting was set for, Friday February 24, 2006.
Meeting Adjourned @ 3:47 p.m.
Tameka J. Colbert
Administrative Specialist, II
Recording Secretary
Attachments
No attachments for this document.