Article published Jan 3, 2005
Neighborhood Alliance
pushes tax petition
Group wants legislators to understand importance
of passage by Assembly
By Mark Lewis
DNJ Staff Writer
Hoping to convey the level of support here
for an adequate facilities tax, the Rutherford Neighborhood Alliance
is circulating a petition to be delivered to the state Legislature
soon after it convenes Jan. 11.
The proposed tax would serve as an alternative
to raising the property tax and is designed to help cover the
infrastructure costs associated with massive growth in the county.
Rutherford County Commission approved the forwarding of the proposal
to the state Legislature in a 15-6 vote Dec. 16.
The bill must receive a simple majority
vote in both the state House and Senate and again by the county
commission to become law.
"Some of our local
state delegates do not take the wishes of our elected county
representatives seriously as a voice of the people, and that's
the reason for the petition,"
said Susan Allen, a member of the Rutherford Neighborhood Alliance
who served on an alternative revenue committee that recommended
the tax to commissioners.
The petition is available for download
at www.RNAlliance.org and www.Borowatch.com. Copies can also
be acquired by calling 896-8835 or by sending an e-mail request
to info@RNAlliance.
At a meeting in early December with the
Rutherford legislative delegation, commissioners were cautioned
not to expect an easy reception in the upcoming session of the
General Assembly, where legislators are seen as increasingly
unwilling to pass new taxes. In the 103rd General Assembly, for
example, a bill to increase the county's development tax failed
in the state House, a result due in large part to divisions in
the local legislative delegation, said 48th District state Rep.
John Hood, D-Murfreesboro.
"I think it's critical that we're
unanimous," he said.
Murfreesboro Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro,
confirmed Wednesday that he supports the tax and plans to jointly
sponsor the bill with Sen. Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville.
At this point, the strongest
opponent of the impending bill for an adequate facilities tax
appears to be 34th District Rep. Donna Rowland, R-Murfreesboro.
She maintains that any new tax in the county should be decided
first in a public referendum, an action that would require approval
from the General Assembly.
"The county has already taken and
put together a task force to review revenue options," Rowland
added. "There should be a task force to review spending."
The Rutherford legislative delegation has
been invited to attend the county Steering Committee meeting
today at 5:30 p.m. to discuss alternative revenue options, Hood
reported. The meeting is open to the public.
If passed, the adequate facilities tax
resolution would result in an initial tax of $1 per square foot
on new residential construction, with the potential of as much
as $2, and 25 cents per square foot on non-residential construction.
The tax would also replace the county's development tax, which
was first set up in 1996 and costs a flat fee of $1,500 for a
new house and lot.
District 7 County Commissioner Gary Farley
said that in light of rapid growth in the county, the implementation
of an adequate facilities tax, or similar measure, is perhaps
the only way to avoid increases in property or wheel taxes. Schools,
for instance, are projected to require $550 million in new construction
over the next 10 years. A judicial center and juvenile detention
center are planned as well.
"My constituents have told me they
want an adequate facilities tax and they do not want increases
in property tax or the wheel tax," said Farley.
In an unscientific Daily
News Journal online poll, 77.5 percent of the 253 respondents
endorsed an adequate facilities tax.
