A Cup of Conversation – October 2018

I loathe local politics. It is counter-intuitive for a small-town merchant to open his mouth on any issue splitting business along two polar extremes. I’ve avoided this stupidity for most of our three decades doing business in Jacksonville.

Having said this, there are times when keeping silent out of self-preservation is selfish and weak which outweighs even stupid. By just speaking up on social media in defense of our restaurants and livelihoods, I’m making enemies, getting distracted and now Mary is giving me that look. None of these things are good for me, especially that look.

So here we are in the middle of a highly offensive attack by just a few to force the city to force the restaurants to become tax collectors and disrupt our fragile micro-economy, pretty much forever.

Let’s back up a bit. I’m not anti-tax anymore than I’m anti-bacteria. There are healthy and unhealthy bacteria just like healthy and unhealthy taxes. A free society needs to be funded, period. We as a community should endeavor to define the difference between the two.

The number one glaring yet unaddressed problem is the blatant discrimination against a small cross-section of merchants to bear this huge burden of tax collection. This includes the inevitable exodus of customers perfectly willing to drive down the road to save five-percent. Many will move on just out of principle and restaurants alone pay the price.

We the restaurants are not brick and wood. We are friends and neighbors serving you. This law will hurt us, plain and simple. How bad is yet to be determined but there will be pain and loss. In full disclosure, we’ve been here too long not to survive but there are some who won’t. Then there will be quality restaurateurs declining to fill the void. It’s unavoidable.

What is so disingenuous is the method the few petitioners used gathering the required signatures and frame the argument to impose a meals tax. They claim this an issue of choice but that’s clearly misleading because there are a number of ways to fund a city service, not just the two options now forced on the ballot. Therefore, it’s deceitful to make this about choice. It’s about something else; something far less noble. But who among us not fully informed on the issue would not sign a petition to promote the sovereign idea of choice? There are people having signed this petition now wishing they had not for just the above reason. Are you among these folks? Let us be the first to apologize for our few overly zealous neighbors. The irony is Jacksonville has some of the highest real estate values, per capita, in the state. That’s a good thing. The lifestyle charm of the downtown merchant community and Britt are primary reasons most folks want to live here. As goes the health of our downtown core, goes the health of property values. Our restaurants, wineries and entertainment venues are the heartbeat of this small town. We’re going to tax that?

The city council openly deliberated for months on the best way to fund a service shortfall. Lots of public input, every option on the table. Our duly elected representatives and citizen committee volunteers did everything by the book and concluded the meals tax was harmful to our micro-economy, therefore rejecting the idea outright by a vote of 13-1. The few now screaming ‘no choice’ had a choice in participating in the process and choosing a body politic best representing their personal interests. If a particular choice in mayor or how to conduct city business was rejected, it’s not because of an absence of choice.

The citizen-based initiative allowing grass root campaigns to address government decisions made in less than the light of day, is a healthy law. But that’s not what happened in our small town. It’s plainly wrong to imply anything different and antithetical to the spirit of the initiative law.

So here we are now dividing neighbor against neighbor, forcing the city leaders to do something they know to be wrong and harmful to our fragile merchant community.

To the decent, thoughtful neighbor legitimately pro-sales tax to fund a city service: We respect you and welcome a new discussion. However, the tax needs to be an inclusive tax, a sales tax on all business, not just a select few merchants. If not, then discrimination wins and is that who we are as a community? Where does that end?

Please, even if you’ve signed this petition, do the right thing and vote NO on the meals tax. Let’s not harm the restaurants. There is a better way, a fair and fiscally prudent way to fund the Police Department and it’s already in place.

Be good not bitter.