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Opinion: The Occupational Tax and Economical Development Time for Merger? Writer proposes: One Government, One Budget, One law Enforcement, One Economic Development Effort, One Community United, and One Tax Just One Opinion, writer says with this commentary By Ben Arnold Columbia and Adair Co are One Community: Are there any important distinctions between those living or working within vs. without the City limits? Will the proposed occupational tax provide an incentive for new industry and jobs to be located outside the city limits? Why should those working within the city limits pay tax to create jobs when that tax provides an incentive for those very same jobs to be located outside the City? Is there a false assumption that only people within the city as represented by their city government want community advancement? Is the occupational tax motivated foremost for economic development or just to get some more money? Maybe we should be clear and separate the purposes. Economic Development: When the Economic Development Board (EDB) speaks of economic development they mostly talk about jobs. What are the Board's objectives, exactly? Lets be clear about what we want otherwise we will get what someone else wants! We keep hearing words like, "move forward, get industry, create jobs, etc". Good thoughts but what do they mean? What is the Plan? We have heard the 'create jobs" talk for over 20 years, and as Dan said, "It hasn't worked". I am supportive of paying more tax but not supportive of inefficiencies. I have seen the prior efforts to bring in low paying jobs. Our recruitment for industry was largely premised on low wage rates here. In the past the EDB was ready to bring in $8/hr jobs. Is this still a goal? Are there even 50 capable people living in our community that want to work for $10/hr? Personally, I don't want to give incentives to industries that take their 'profits' to other communities and leave us with low wage jobs. Many travel out of county to work but not for $10 jobs. Can't we specify what we want, set wage limits and incentivize for profits staying here? Do others agree with me? If they do, we need a new vision for economic development for our community. "We need to do something" is not a plan. It reminds me of the quote, "I couldn't wait for success, so I went ahead without it". I believe "Community is Built Faster by Profits that Wages". The City spent more than $589,000 on the recent City Hall expansion and $63,000 on the Trabue House. I doubt any taxpayer would have voted to spend this money for these purposes. What could we have accomplished to build community with this money? Lets use this money to support local high school and LW College graduates in creating entrepreneurial startups. These owners would live here, would keep their profits here and create real economic power here. Those working with their own entrepreneurial ideas will add much more than those who work for out of state companies. Could we not set up a new EDB of people who know how to create economic power? Why not let them manage such money just for one year? When Jim Hadley was on the EDB I was encouraged since he had actually created industrial jobs. The best force for economic development is an attractive community with modern amenities where potential owners want to live. It took about 20 years to finally remove the old house by the cemetery at the entrance to town. This is too long to accomplish such a small thing. Action people move on after a year or so if they can't make something happen (i.e. Jim Hadley), staying around just to keep on talking is a sure path to failure. At the risk of offending some friends, I will share some experiences. I spent about $1 million to build 2 facilities near our town. An unforeseen problem with the septic system has prevented me from opening. Extension of the city sewer system, about one mile, seemed a good solution. I have been trying for years to get this done, even offering to pay half of the suggested $300,000. After years of talking, JR Stotts got involved and became the rainmaker. A year ago we had meetings from JR's efforts and it seemed the project was a go and could happen quickly, meaning months. Without going into details, about a year later I received a contract from Frankfort that could not be legally executed, was grossly misstated, with a completion date of 2017. This project had passed through about 4/5 levels of government up to the attorney in Frankfort and the Governor's office. The project is creating 25 to 30 jobs with half requiring college degrees or equivalent and 2/3 advanced degrees. The project could have brought into Adair Co just under $2 million per year; mostly in wages, local expenditures, and taxes. During these 3 years of effort, I have received no contact from the Economic Development Board (EDB) or anyone from the City. My industrial building of 22,500 sq. ft. with $150,000 improvements is located within the city limits with ready sewer, 3-phase power, etc and has been offered for years to the EDB for new industry. After listing it myself in the Frankfort available buildings inventory maybe 10 years back, I recently discovered it was not listed. I have since listed it again. Last week I discovered the State contact for the building is the EDB. It is the only available industrial building over 10,000 sq ft in the county but the EDB doesn't even list it on their web page. They have no buildings listed on their web page. I have also discovered our new industrial park on N 55 still has only 2 buildings, one on septic system and one on the sewer extension. This several mile sewer extension project funded by taxpayers is largely not used along it route because no pump station was included. The sewer pipe connected to the one industrial park building is only large enough to support that one single building. One piece of the park was even sold to generate operating funds. It is not at all clear what the EDB wants but "the board gets the credit" seems important. With no success to show for the last 20 years and with no clear plan for the future, I don't support a tax to continue the EDB without a new plan. Lets think of something better. The City Government: The City budget is about $3.2 Million including Utilities, which is highly profitable. The cost center for 'Utilities' had a carry forward balance for the City of Columbia last year of $2,478,298. The message is the 'sewer system', i.e. utilities bring in big profits for the City government. Do the taxpayers know this? Would they agree with this? Should Utilities be a profit center for the City government? Was not this sewer system built largely from state and federal taxpayer money through grants? Should not Utilities be operated as a non-profit service for the taxpayer? When ask, what do you get for your city taxes, some will say we have sewers and get garbage pick up. But the taxpayer is paying more for these services than they cost. No one wants to be annexed into the City, because they get taxed 2x times and their water bill doubles. Something must be wrong when the people don't want the services offered by their own government? What is this about? We all want streetlights, sidewalks maintained and law enforcement but at what cost. Last year the City spent $680 Downtown Revitalization, $0 little league, $2,000 sidewalk repair, $9,865 JBlair park, and $6,054 on playgrounds. It cost about $530,000 to run City hall including employees and building expenses. Our fire Dept. costs us about $100,000 (the one impressive result!) and city police cost us about $1 million. The City FY14/15 budget 'excess of resources over appropriations' was $2,623,000, mostly from the Utility profits. The total combined budget of Columbia ($3.2m) and Adair Co ($5.8m) is just over $9,000,000, equivalent to per County resident $326/yr and per Columbia resident $1130/yr. When compared to about $700/yr per resident of Louisville/Jefferson County, one has to ask why? What do those living or working within the city limits get for this money that those outside the city limits don't? Is Walmart in the County or in the City? The City annexation was just contrived to extend the sewer system out there and control its profits. Who benefits from this pseudo-distinction, except City hall? So what is the real distinction between the City and County governments? The City government has control of the Utilities and its profits and they over charge and double tax the residents of Columbia and maintain control of this profit center. Deceptive Politics, oh yes: The City's published pie chart, 'Who Pays', is disingenuous at best. They seek to show that only 12% of the city residents will pay the new tax. Then to induce Columbia residents to vote for their new tax, they add a token 0.03 property tax Reduction, during a time they are trying to increase revenue. This little game will save me tax but I suggest the people will be offended by this deceptive little political game. One Government, One Budget, One law Enforcement, One Economic Development Effort, One Community United, and One Tax: The County population of about 18,000 doesn't justify two governments. There was a time when people in the country had outhouses and springs (me included) and the City center was active with many businesses. The interests of the 2 regions were different then. Our population now is about the same as back then when we had a sheriff and deputy, maybe 2/3 city police and a voluntary mayor. It was a beautiful little town and efficient. Now we have some 10-15 city police and similar number in the sheriff's department. So much has changed since those early days including county water, electrical power everywhere, and septic systems with EPA oversight, activity in the town center is greatly diminished, and hardly any horse travel. The inefficiencies of the 2 separate governments are apparent. There is a better way forward. Merge the 2 governments; close City hall and end its expenses, move 3 city council persons to the county government, merge the City police into the Sheriffs' Dept., the Fire Dept has its act together, demand the county to operate the Utilities as a non-profit for the benefit of the citizens of all of Adair county and return the $2,000,000 to the people, let people pay a fee for city garbage pick up, develop a new goal and vision for economic development and finally drop the punitive City tax and return the $500,000 to the people of Columbia. There will be no important loss of services and after a transition period, we will all precede more efficiently with a united effort. "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."-- George Bernard Shaw Just one opinion: Ben Arnold arnold@image-analysis.com This story was posted on 2014-09-11 06:22:40
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