Back in May and June, when the Cottonwood City Council voted on whether to begin the process of raising the city’s sales tax by 0.5 percent, supporters and opposition came out in fervor. Speeches were given, people held up handmade signs with firmly held opinions, and the small city council meetings in Old Town were packed.
But the first public hearing on Aug. 7 on whether to finalize a vote for the tax increase was a much sleepier affair. No members of the public stood up to speak in favor of or against the plan to raise the sales tax by 0.5 percent and use the funds to pay for road improvements, replenishing the town’s reserves and paying down pension liabilities for public employees. There remains a final public hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 4, but after the arguments that led to a 4-3 vote in favor of moving forward on a possible increase in June, it seems that there is little doubt about the eventual decision.
“I don’t think there’s much more we can discuss that’s going to change someone’s mind at this point,” said Cottonwood Mayor Tim Elinski, who voted in favor of moving forward with the tax increase in June and said he believes the relevant arguments were hashed out at previous meetings.
The tax increase remains a point of controversy on the campaign trail, with city council candidates Jackie Nairn and Michael Mathews saying it went too far at a candidate forum July 25, especially in taxing food, while the remaining candidates Kyla Allen, Doug Hulse and Bill Tinnin defended the tax increase.
When asked, even Mathews, who made numerous speeches against the tax increase in May and June, said he believes there is little use in fighting against it at this point, since the decision has already been made.
The tax increase was not the only bit of important business that went unchallenged at the Aug. 7 meeting. The council also voted unanimously to increase capacity fees on new water and wastewater development, requiring real estate developers to pay for the construction of additional water and wastewater systems for new homes.
This was the final public hearing on the subject, which proceeded with no opposition from the public, leading to a unanimous and final vote in favor. Under the new fee structure, it will cost $1,124 per expected resident to hook up a new house to a water main and $4,502 per expected resident to hook up a new house to the sewer system.
“Our policy is to make sure that new development should pay for itself, for the impact it has on existing infrastructure,” Elinski said about the hike. “Infrastructure is expensive but it’s something we need from government. We’ve got to take into account the cost of development. We don’t want to burden our existing residents.”
The council also passed its finalized Fiscal Year 2019 budget at the meeting, also with little discussion or controversy from the public, after having passed preliminary versions of the budget at previous meetings. The members of the council thanked the city’s finance department for its help in implementing a new budget process, involving the council at a much earlier date.
Council members praised Finance Director Kirsten Lennon, and hoped to repeat the process in the coming year along with improvements based on what was learned this year.
Elinski said he hopes the process can be improved even more with the hiring of a new city manager.
“I think this council definitely wants to be more hands-on with the budget, which is not a bad thing,” Elinski said. “We’ll be meeting with Finance department staff soon to discuss what went right and what needs improvement.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
