A proposal to let local communities vote themselves a sales tax for economic development projects is teetering in the House.
The problem for some with House Bill 73 – which would let counties and cities hold a referendum on dedicating up to 1 cent of sales tax for any economic development project – is it started its life last year as a way to boost the arts.
“I understand there are folks who want funds for the arts through this,” said Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, the leading skeptic on the House Ways and Means Committee where the bill has lingered. “But instead of traveling on its own, they’re giving a little of what everyone wants to try to get approval.”
The bill was conceived last year as a way to make up for budget cuts in the Georgia Arts Council and add to other weak public funding for the arts and culture in the state.
It failed after a dispute between metro Atlanta lawmakers, especially those in north Fulton County who fear any tax will disproportionately help Atlanta at the cost of the suburbs.
This year’s effort worked to address that issue head-on. Any local option sales tax in Fulton would send 60 percent of the first two-tenths of the penny to arts funding. Each tenth of a cent in Fulton generates about $22 million.
That would leave nearly $9 million to be divvied up among each jurisdiction by population, with Fulton receiving money only for the people in its unincorporated area in the south.
Larger cities in Fulton are projected to get at least $1 million each that they could use for arts programs, more traditional government services such as parks and police or lowering the municipal millage rate.
“This is not about the Woodruff. Frankly, this is not about the arts,” said Joe Bankoff, president of the Woodruff Arts Center, which encompasses the Alliance Theater, Atlanta Symphony and the High Museum of Art.
“This is about creating a system that lets local people support what they want and lets governments level the tax burden,” Bankoff said.
That change has captured the support of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and even the one-time skeptics in Cobb County. Cobb is expected to want to use the new sales tax to replace one that is about to expire, and for the first time be able to use the money not just for buildings but to lower its overall tax rate.
“This would allow local communities to decide what they need to do to grow and retain jobs,” said Cobb Chamber President David Connell, who represents 2,500 businesses. “The number one issue with our chamber is to grow jobs, and that’s why we support this.”
But to get to any public question, sponsor Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, must first to win over his colleagues.
The Ways and Means Committee has not voted the proposal out for placement on the calendar for a full chamber vote.
If it fails to pass the House by Wednesday’s Crossover Day, it will die if not attached to another bill the House has approved this year.
“Educational SPLOSTS have worked well, but I just don’t know that we need it for this,” Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, said of similar local sales taxes for school construction.
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