Скачать или смотреть Mayor Maynard Special Address about Local Option Sales Tax

Last week we had a mediation with the County and other cities to try and resolve and negotiate a new Local Option Sales Tax certificate that defines how much each City and the County gets to apply to their areas.

The negotiations failed and we weren’t able to reach an agreement

And a lot of citizens are concerned, there are a lot of things being written, a lot of things being talked about and people are concerned, even fearful, and I share that, I’m a little fearful. I don’t want that to go away, none of us do, none of us ever did.

It was never the intent of the Council for the LOST to go away.

Early on we felt like it was appropriate to use that as a tool to settle some other issues we have going on with the County. But at this point in time, that’s not a realistic expectation.

I am dedicated to trying to continue the Local Option Sales Tax.

In my mind what it has been for the last ten years is based strictly on our population which I think is really unfair to the City-the City of Winder and the other Cities. Because I believe most of this sales tax is generated within these cities and should be returned to those areas where the businesspeople have invested.

Now there are some commercial districts in the County but having said that, all those are only made possible by City [of Winder] water. The county has very little, very few, commercial customers on their water system.

But all that being said, in an effort to try to make this tax continue and make it happen at our next meeting I will urge our council to authorize me to sign a certificate to a distribution of this LOST tax equal to what it has, as equal to what it is now, as it has existed for the last 10 years.

I think that is not fair to the cities, but you know, but like everybody else I’m fearful that we may lose this tax and I think that would be devastating to everyone. The small cities, the county this City, and the citizens as a whole I think it would just be terrible to let that LOST go away.