Temporary sales tax may be extended

The quarter-cent sales tax that Franklin County commissioners enacted to pay for a new jail and morgue is supposed to end on Dec. 31, 2018, but County Administrator Kenneth Wilson recommends that the commissioners make it permanent to keep the county’s finances stable.

“With this, we can look at preserving the level of

services we have,” Wilson said.

Commissioner John O’Grady supports making it permanent.

“The alternative would be to cut budgets and services, which we have had to do continually over the years,” O’Grady said Thursday.

O’Grady said he thinks the two other commissioners — fellow Democrats — would support making the sales tax permanent.

Commissioner Kevin Boyce isn’t so sure. “There are so many questions to be answered,” he said Thursday.

Commissioners have to look at the proposal, hold public hearings and listen to staff members’ opinions before deciding, Boyce said. “I am open to the conversation.”

Boyce, unlike his two colleagues, was not a commissioner when the temporary tax was unanimously approved in 2013.

Commissioner Marilyn Brown wouldn’t comment on making the tax permanent, but issued a statement saying she lacks the information to make a decision.

A tax critic said that temporary taxes too often aren’t.

“They need to justify that need,” said Greg Lawson, senior policy analyst for the

• A $100 pair of running shoes costs $107.50 including the sales tax. If the temporary tax expires, those shoes would cost $107.25, saving 25 cents. • A $1,100 refrigerator costs 1,182.50 after tax. If the temporary sales tax expires, it would cost $1,179.75, saving $2.75. • A $28,770 Chevrolet Impala costs $30,927.75 after tax. If the temporary sales tax expires, it would cost $30,855.83, saving $71.92.

Columbus-based Buckeye Institute, a conservative research group.

“You can’t convince me there aren’t areas in county government” that could be cut to avoid extending the sales tax.

The commissioners adopted the five-year sales tax so the county could pay cash for the new jail and forensic-science center and other specified services. The tax ends in 14 months unless the commissioners adopt Wilson’s recommendation.

Wilson stressed that taxpayers are already paying the $60 million per year generated by the tax, and extending it would mean that the tax rate wouldn’t change.

But if it’s allowed to end, consumers would keep a

total of $60 million in their pockets.

It’s unfair, Lawson said, to change a temporary tax intended for specific purposes into a permanent tax intended for the general use of running county government.

“We have no idea where it goes,” Lawson said of revenue from an extended sales tax.

“Don’t make it permanent. If there’s something specific we don’t have, justify that need ... But this (proposal) is ‘We can do whatever we want with it, and nobody’s ever going to know.’”

Wilson’s recommendation calls for completing years earlier as one project what was to be a two-phase project of building the new jail.