Southaven backs June referendum on tax
Voters will decide on whether to keep ‘Penny For Your Parks’ restaurant tax
Southaven proposes holding a June 6 referendum on keeping its "Penny For Your Parks" restaurant tax, in hopes the action will spur DeSoto County's House delegation to support moving a bill extending the tax out of committee and to a full floor vote.
The referendum, something that was wanted by opponents of extending the tax, would be held in conjunction with the scheduled general election for municipal offices. Aldermen unanimously approved an amended resolution calling for the referendum during a special meeting Friday afternoon.
Specifically, the board's action replaces a previously approved resolution in support of a bill introduced by state Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch. That bill, approved by the full Senate, granted the city's request to extend the tax for four years and included a provision allowing a referendum on eliminating the tax permanently if opponents gathered enough petition signatures to force a vote.
The new resolution replaces the petition option for a vote with a mandatory vote during a regular election cycle, something opponents have wanted. Mayor Darren Musselwhite said he has been told the revised resolution will get the support of the county's full House delegation, which he said he was told was needed to get the tax extension request out of the House's Local and Private Legislation Committee and before the full House for action.
Musselwhite said he was hearing that six of 10 House members supported the city's tax extension request, but that unanimous support was needed to get it out of committee. Even then, there's no guarantee the tax will win a full House vote but chances are much better if local legislators are behind it.
"We're going to do what they said they would support and hold them to their word," Musselwhite said in asking board members to approve the revised resolution.
Approval by both chambers of the legislation extending the tax is required to trigger the referendum, in which voter approval would be needed to complete the process.
Without the tax's extension, the city would lose a revenue source that last year provided about $1.9 million. Southaven used the money to fund a new senior citizens center at Snowden Grove Park and other major improvements there.
Musselwhite and aldermen have touted the tax as a way to generate revenue that largely doesn't affect Southaven residents or their property tax rate since the majority of the city's restaurant patrons are from out of town. The tax is 1 percent of gross sales.
"We want to give Southaven the best chance of keeping this tax," Musselwhite said Friday in asking for the revised resolution.
The DeSoto County Conservative Coalition opposes uses the legislative process to extend the tax perpetually. Even though voters approved it twice — in 2010 and again in 2011 after a technical mistake invalidated the first vote —opponents complained that only a small percentage of registered voters participated, and said a new vote during a scheduled election would be better than a perpetual extension through legislation.
Don Abernathy of the Coalition was out of town on vacation and said by text he was unaware of the board's Friday action, but the move by Musselwhite and aldermen seems in line with what some reluctant House members have said their constituents want.
"An overwhelming majority ... whom I have spoken with want to be able to vote on it again," state Rep. Ashley Henley, RSouthaven, said earlier. She said her constituents though the petition provision for a referendum created "an extra, unnecessary step in order to be able to vote on it."