Salem officials will ask voters for tax increase

Photo

Jerry Wolford

By D.a. Wilkinson

SALEM — Mayor Jerry Wolford said he will form committees and talk to people to promote a half-percent income tax increase that will appear on the November ballot.

Council passed the ordinance during a special council meeting Wednesday night that originally ended in a tie.

Council President Tod A. Mumpire broke the tie to pass it.

Mumpire said he approved the measure “so voters could vote on it.”

Council tried a similar proposal earlier this year that never made it to the ballot.

The city collects a 1-percent income tax that brings in about $4 million a year. The proposed additional half-percent tax would bring in about $2 million for four years.

Wolford has said that the extra revenue would go for street patching and paving and storm sewer work, but the city doesn’t have any specific plans.

Councilman Earl A. Schory II opposed the proposal, saying, “Salem city voters are not stupid. People see it as a game.”

Schory complained that there was no list of projects and that the administration could not say how the money would be spent. He wanted to tell voters how the money would be used.

“It just doesn’t make sense. Stores are closing, and I think the public voter will see that,” Schory added.

Councilman David Nestic, who opposed the measure, read a lengthy message from local businessman Roger Hack, who was critical of the plan. Hack contended that the economic decline will result in fewer working people.

Councilman Clyde Brown said, “There’s a collapse of mom-and-pop stores. They’re barely holding their own.”

Those councilmen voted against the measure.

Council members K. Bret Apple, Rita O’Leary and Dennis Groves voted for the increase with little comment.

Councilwoman Mary Ann Dzuracky did not attend the meeting.

If voters approve the issue, the city would not begin to collect the income tax for 2010 until 2011.

The parks department has discussed renewing a levy this fall. Wolford said the department could move the request to another time.

wilkinson@vindy.com