Legislation to allow residents of cities to hold a referendum to impose an additional 1 percent sales tax on themselves has failed, killing a potential revenue source McComb officials had hoped to obtain to fix streets.
House Bill 523 and Senate Bill 2145 would have allowed cities to hold referendums to levy an additional 1 percent tax for specific capital improvement projects.
The tax would have expired after the projects were complete.
It would have taken 60 percent of voters’ support to enact the tax, according to the bills.
The House bill died when Municipalities Commission chairman, Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, chose not to bring it up for debate before the entire House before a deadline.
Blackmon said the bill did not have enough support.
The senate bill died in the Finance Committee.
McComb Mayor Whitney Rawlings supported the measure, saying residents who have been asking for better streets should get a chance to vote on a tax to fix them.
“I have been having conversations with the selectmen about our streets, and it didn’t look like (the tax) was going to happen for the city,” Rawlings said today.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed hesitation to support the measure.
Mayors around the state supported the measure, saying they shouldn’t have to ask permission from lawmakers to seek another revenue source, as had been required for other special local sales taxes, including McComb’s 3 percent hotel tax.
Rawlings, however, said he is not giving up on the sales tax option.
“There is always another year that we can fight that battle,” he said.
Rawlings said he and city selectmen now will have to work with the budget to find the money for street repairs.
“We are just going to have to dig into the budget and find some extra dollars,” he said. “(Fiscal year 2013-14) is going to be tough. If we come up with it, we are going to be taking dollars from somewhere else in the city.”
