La Cygne officials positive after first town hall meeting on sales tax ballot issue
- Roger Sims, Journal Staff
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
By Roger Sims, Journal staff
LA CYGNE – In the aftermath of the first informational town hall meeting on modifying one of the city’s two 1% sales taxes, members of the La Cygne City Council uniformly said they thought that the more than 30 property owners who attended were receptive to the changes that will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The proposed change on the sales tax that initially built the swimming pool will shift a large part of the funds collected toward repairing and paving city streets as well as implementing changes proposed by the city stormwater management plan that was completed last year.
But because of the language on the sales tax ballot for the swimming pool passed in 2009, money raised from that sales tax can’t be shifted to the street issue without a ballot issue.
A “yes” vote will allow the city to use the sales tax for street repairs, stormwater management, sidewalks, and maintenance of the swimming pool and improvements at La Cygne Community Park. If that sales tax issue passes and the council decides go for a 25 year term, it will go into effect on April 1, 2027, and will sunset 25 years later on March 30, 2052.
For city officials, the changes indicated in the stormwater management plan go hand-in-glove with the street repairs because inadequate drainage alongside the streets can lead to faster deterioration of the road surface.
The city council members discussed the feedback from the April 1 town hall meeting in the Swan Room of the La Cygne Library at the council meeting that immediately followed at the La Cygne Community Building.
Councilmember Oscar Marino said he initially expected an angry turnout for the town hall, but that City Clerk Jodi Wade did a good job of explaining how the property taxes and sales taxes worked.
“I did think it was excellent,” said Councilmember Ed Smith. “It gave people a better understanding of how complicated it was.”
Mayor Debra Wilson opened the town hall meeting before turning the floor over the City Clerk Jodi Wade. Wade took the audience, which also included the city’s elected officials and staff members, through the sometimes complicated explanation of the two 1% sales taxes currently being collected as well as the ad valorem property tax, and the city’s general fund budget.
A member of the audience raised the question about the sales tax that went into effect in 1988. A popular conception of long-term residents in the town were that the tax was to be used for streets. However, while street repair was apparently in the ballot language, it was one of many uses listed for the tax. The council does not intend to revisit that tax in this election.
It was obvious that the condition of the streets was on the minds of many of the participants, and some called into question why the streets weren’t better maintained. Part of that is because the repairs have been piecemeal. The other part is that recent upgrades to the city’s sewer and water systems have resulted in patchwork repairs with an eye toward eventual repaving entire blocks.
City Clerk Wade pointed out that the streets in the city have been overlaid with asphalt twice since 1988. She estimated that the cost to overlay them now would be about $8 million.
According to Wade, in 2021 the city got a bid for repaving Fourth Street from Market Street to Grand. The estimate, which included creating a new base and paving, was $1.04 million.
“I want everyone to realize that streets aren’t cheap,” she said.
She did say that 25% of the sales tax money collected from the 1988 sales tax went into the special highway reserve fund. There is almost $850,000 in that fund now.
Wade also indicated that the more money the city has to put toward streets should help in efforts to receive grants.
“The more money we have, the more points we get on the grant applications,” she said.
Keith Stoker, a former council member, suggested that some street repairs needed to be made before they can be done properly.
But as resident Bonnie LaFoe pointed out, some of the streets have areas that have sunk as much as a foot. Those kind of repairs likely won’t be address with a Band-Aid approach.
Councilmember Kent Wade said that the city might have to replace sections of road with an 80-foot stretch of gravel until they can be repaired properly.
One of the questions that the council has been dealing with is whether the division of the tax should be open ended. In other words, should the ballot language indicate that the money will be used for swimming pool and park upkeep and street repair and maintenance but not specify what percentage of the tax would be allotted to each category.
Or should the ballot question indicate that, for example, 90% would be allocated to the streets and 10% to the park.
At the end of the presentation, the mayor asked for a show of hands by people who wanted the use of the money specified on the ballot. Almost unanimously the audience preferred that the allocation of funds be on the ballot.
City officials plan to schedule more town hall meetings throughout the year until the election in November. But Wilson asked those who attended the first town hall meeting to reach out to other residents about the issue.
At the council meeting later that evening, Councilmember Kent Wade said, “We’re going to keep it up until November.”