Should the PSB tax be a major issue in the Boone County Board Primary?

http://www.rrstar.com/article/20150328/OPINION/150329373/0/SEARCH/?Start=2

Well  according to Chairman Walberg our new county board will make the decision.  That was back in March 2015.  Will we hear from the candidates as to where they stand on the issue?  Will the people have the right to decide in a referendum?  There are have major doubts if either occurs.

 

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• My View: 2018 Boone County Board will decide future of tax

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• By Bob Walberg
  Boone County Board chairman

  Posted Mar. 28, 2015 at 3:02 PM
  Updated Mar 28, 2015 at 3:46 PM

  The Boone County Board of 2018 will still have the decision to stop or continue collecting the Public Safety Tax. An ordinance to abate property taxes used to guarantee the bond payments was on the board agenda and was properly published. One of the “whereas” statements was the pledge to demand that the board in 2018 will stop collecting the tax. One member pointed this out and remarked that we promised to only use the money for the jail and stop collecting it when the jail bonds are paid. Discussion during the meeting led to amending the ordinance and removing the “whereas” pledge to stop collecting the tax in 2018.

  Who are the people who promised to stop collecting the Boone County Public Safety Tax when the jail bonds are paid in 2018?

  They made a promise with no authority to back them up. The ballot made no mention of a sunset to this referendum that created the Public Safety Sales Tax. No one can promise and obligate a board 20 years down the road. The board of 2018 will have that difficult decision to make regarding the future of this tax.

  That group promised to only use the money to pay for the jail building. In 2003 the board decided to also pay jailor salaries with the money. Since then, the money has also been used for Public Safety Capital Improvements. Every year the board voted for the budget with this spending included.

  All the talk of removing this is a distraction and publicity stunt. I believe the real reasons most people supported the referendum is because they saw the need for public safety as the ballot stated. They believed that it was better to pay for this need with sales taxes instead of real estate taxes. The Public Safety Sales Tax does not tax food, medicine or titled property. If the board of 2018 stops collecting the sales tax, their next decision will be on how to replace those revenues or stop paying those expenses.

  It was foolish to think that when the jail bonds were paid we would close the jail because there was no money to operate it.

  Every year the Boone County Board makes cuts because our revenues are increasing much less than the increase in our costs. The state is making very large reductions to county revenues. Some of the proposed reductions include freezing property taxes and cutting the county’s share of the income tax by 50 percent.

  The Boone County Board will need level-headed, responsible members to deal with the apparent overwhelming challenges that appear to be facing them.

  A similar problem happened to the District 100 School Board. Rapid growth was impacting the district. The plan was to build schools to accommodate the future growth. They planned to pay for the schools with the larger population that would generate property tax dollars. That would require a smaller share of the cost of the new buildings for each taxpayer. Again, unforeseen events took place, and a declining population faced very large bond payments for the schools.

• Page 2 of 2 - The community clearly saw the problem and passed a referendum for a sales tax to give relief to the property tax obligation of the school district.

  In 20 years the situation can change. We can’t expect board members to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the responsibility of providing public safety for the county. Our present board only removed the demand being placed on the board of 2018. The decision to stop collection of the tax will still be the 2018 board's challenge.

  Bob Walberg is chairman of the Boone County Board.

• Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/article/20150328/OPINION/150329373/0/SEARCH/?Start=2