A Few Minutes with the Mayor – September 2018

As your Mayor, I’m always ready to take responsibility for my actions. Screw Up—‘Fess Up is my rule. So imagine my surprise when confronted with accusations of sponsoring the meals tax initiative on this November’s election ballot. Evidently the assumption was made on the part of some, that the Mayor was behind this idea. Those of you who read my column surely know otherwise.

I reached out to some of these unhappy people and decided to ask if I could reprint their comments. The following letter is typical of most.

“A city has the requirement to support itself. Period. For non-residents of that city to pay for services they infrequently use is unethical and unfair. Jacksonville citizens are supported by their police department 24/7. Visitors rarely need them. A five per cent tax on food and beverages in Jacksonville to fund… police department operations?

The petitioners that support the tax are local citizens and clearly in favor of visitors helping fund their police department. Any measurement will show that locals eating in Jacksonville are in the minority.

Rationale and data supporting the proposed is slanted and incomplete. Where are objective studies and comparisons? Not only will I stop using food and beverage vendors in Jacksonville, I will campaign actively for others to also stop.

I stopped eating in Ashland when they instituted their 5% meals tax – to support and upgrade tourist-oriented aspects of Ashland (Not just the police department).

What kind of tax do you propose next—or will the food tax increase in time? It’s more than dollars and cents. Look up the definitions of “Integrity, ethics and fairness.”

Shame on you!”

Don Karpen

Ex-visitor

I talked to Mr. Karpen and he means what he says.

Oregon has a history of citizens against sales and meals taxes. There are many reasons for this but I concur with Mr. Karpen who cries out for “integrity, ethics, and fairness.” Our Police Department is NOT here for tourists. It is here to protect us… the citizens of town. They work 24 hours a day for us. Not just at dinner hour for tourists.

Ah! But I can hear some saying there are those of us who don’t earn enough to pay the $20 surcharge to support our police. All too true! That is why the City Council and your Mayor increased the income exemption level to $25,000 where citizens pay nothing… let me repeat that… nothing! Between $25,000 and $30,000 they pay $10.

What the proponents of this tax are not telling you is the Council and Budget Committee, made up of 14 people from the community just like you, voted overwhelmingly against this tax. Ask yourself why the vote was so lopsided. Who is wrong here? The Budget Committee and Council? Or the lone holdout promoting a meals tax on the premise that tourists populate our restaurants year-round and in so doing generate a revenue stream sufficient to fund our police? People who actually eat in our restaurants know better. When Britt is in season the restaurants are full…normally. The rest of the year it is our citizens who support them… not tourists. Yet the police work every day. They are not seasonal.

Finally, I would like to point out that the proponents of this tax keep proclaiming they are giving you the facts. They conveniently ignore one HUGE fact. Business in town is DOWN by 26%-40% this summer. If this meals tax is supposed to pay for the Police, what do we do…lay off 26% of our Police force! We certainly can’t pay the Police with IOUs. Again… your Budget Committee understood the problems with a meals tax. Please support them, your fellow citizens, by voting against this meals tax. Don’t listen to the argument, “It works in Ashland.” We live in Jacksonville, not Ashland, where their property tax rate is more than double ours.

Let’s not change Jacksonville. Vote against this meals tax. And don’t buy the argument the restaurant operators don’t know what they’re talking about on this tax. After all, they’re in the business; the tax promoters are not. Vote against this meals tax. Please.