Opponents vocal of proposed district
By Angie Anaya Borgedalen
Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea for Historic Downtown Liberty Inc. to create a community improvement district, which would allow an extra sales tax to be imposed on purchases made downtown.
Kathy Bedinger, who owns Ethan Allen furniture store on Liberty Square with her husband, Mike, said charging higher sales taxes was not smart.
Bedinger said they used Liberty’s relatively modest sales tax to successfully attract customers from affluent areas like Johnson County. “This is a golden opportunity for us to be the lowest sales taxed,” Bedinger said. “I’d like it if we had no sales taxes.”
The city’s current sales tax is 7.35 percent. If voters approve a quarter-cent increase in the existing quarter-cent transportation tax on the November ballot, it would go up to 7.6 percent.
About 50 property owners, merchants and residents attended a town hall meeting Oct. 7 at Heritage Hall to discuss the merits of an improvement district. Ralph Brant, owner of a retail shop, said he collected signatures of 39 downtown retailers that were in opposition. Tom Wymore, owner of Cody’s convenience store on Mill Street, told the group he collected 562 signatures of improvement district opponents.
According to Coni Hadden, president of HDLI, only those who own property or live within the designated boundaries of the improvement district would be eligible to vote. For a sales tax to take effect, a proposed improvement district must pass by a simple majority three-ways: by a vote of property owners, residential voters and by assessed valuation and then be approved by the City Council.
Tim Harris, one of the largest downtown property owners who attended the meeting, said HDLI should hold off until the economy showed improvement. “My personal opinion is that they should table in and come back in the spring,” Harris said. “This economy has spooked a lot of people.” Harris developed the Liberty Triangle, which under an improvement district has imposed an additional one-cent sales tax to benefit the redevelopment project. “Most people don’t seem to pay any attention to it,” he said.
Hadden said there were approximately 90 properties in the designated improvement district and about a dozen registered voters who live within the boundaries of the proposed district. Hadden said money raised by an improvement district could only be used within the district to benefit the central business area for such things as beautification and marketing and promotion. It is estimated that an additional one-cent sales tax would raise about $100,000.
Charles Renner, an attorney hired by HDLI to help develop the improvement district, said other area improvement districts such as Parkville were successful. “All of them I’ve worked on turned out to be beneficial,” Renner said. “And some of the most vocal opponents, came to conclude that it was making a difference.”
< Back |
