La Cygne officials have concern that sales tax issue won't spark voter interest
By Roger Sims, Journal staff
LA CYGNE – La Cygne City Council members and volunteers are expected to be reaching out to voters at retail establishments leading up to Election Day, November 3. City Clerk Jodi Wade showed the council tri-fold information flyers that will be handed out to voters about the sales tax issue on the November ballot.
However, neither the council nor city employees can take sides on the issue.They were warned by City Attorney Jeff Deane against promoting voters to approve the sales tax change, so their task is simply to inform voters.
Following a town hall meeting on October 14 that drew less than a handful of voters, city officials worried that voters wouldn’t take time to give the ballot question a serious read.
Even worse, according to Councilmember Kent Wade, on the ballot the sales tax question follows a Kansas Constitution amendment question and he was concerned they would see sales tax in the language and then vote no.
However, the ballot question isn’t about whether to add a sales tax. The sales tax in question is whether to switch the use of the sales tax from maintaining the swimming pool and the park to using 90% of that tax for repairing and upgrading streets.
Here’s what a “yes” vote means:
The city will continue to collect a 1% sales tax until 2052, however, instead of going to the park and swimming pool, 90% will go toward fixing streets and working on related drainage issues. Most of the sales tax collected by the city comes from purchases made from businesses in the La Cygne Industrial Park, and not from retail businesses in the city.
A “no” vote:
The city will continue to collect the 1% sales tax until 2034 and all of the estimated $300,000 plus dollars it collects annually will build up in pool and park fund. The bond on the swimming pool was paid off earlier this year and the maintenance of both the pool and park requires less money.
Former councilmember Danny Curtis at the town hall meeting called the “yes” vote a “no-brainer.” Because of sewer and water projects over the past five years, and because of the deterioration of the road base, many of the streets are deteriorated or have furrows where the base has deteriorated.
The council at its meeting on Wednesday, October 21, consented to take on what Councilmember Wade has called the “library lake” as its first street improvement project.
Mayor Debra Wilson pushed the council to decide on either paving a portion of Seventh Street or fix the pool that collects at the corner of Broadway and Chestnut streets after any measurable rainfall. The issue there has existed since the library’s last major addition.
Wilson said she wanted the council to take some action beyond discussing possible projects each meeting.
Dan Nasalroad, public works administrator, said he is not sure if the water there, which covers at least one wheelchair ramp following a rain, would be best to drain west toward the railroad tracks or north, which would eventually drain to the railroad tracks as well.
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