Resident Sally McGuire this week said she is preparing to collect signatures for a ballot initiative to abolish the Haines Borough’s 1 percent municipal sales tax for tourism promotion and economic development.
“I’m not opposed to tourism,” McGuire said. “I’m truly not. I think it’s done some really good things; I just don’t like having to pay for it.”
At last week’s Haines Borough Assembly meeting, McGuire called on members to discuss the topic at an upcoming meeting, and possibly to shift those tax revenues into the general fund for use on the Chilkat Center and roads.
“If they put the money into the general fund, then tourism would have to compete for that money just like every other department does, like the library and the museum and the cop shop and everybody else,” McGuire said.
The tax was put in place in 1986 to support tourism promotion, and voters later extended it to fund economic development.
“Dedicated taxes like this one usually come with a pull date; this one didn’t,” McGuire said. “Therefore, the borough should have been asking voters every couple years if they wanted to re-authorize it.”
Numbers provided by Jila Stuart, borough chief fiscal officer, show the tax generated $475,268 in fiscal year 2008, $491,090 in 2009 and $460,457 in 2010. Of that money, between $81,849 to $98,771 went toward economic development each year.
“I’m here because I still think you should take the lead on this, and it shouldn’t have to be done by a citizens’ ballot initiative,” McGuire told the assembly.
She said if the assembly takes no action on the tax, a group of locals is ready to move forward with the ballot initiative “if we have to.”
“If I run it as a ballot initiative, I would run it to just plain get rid of it,” McGuire said.
Those interested in joining the campaign can mail McGuire at P.O. Box 918.
According to borough clerk Julie Cozzi, McGuire would need to collect at least 275 valid signatures to have the issue placed on the ballot, equivalent to 25 percent of the voters in the previous municipal election.
The initiative also requires a minimum of 10 sponsors who are eligible borough voters. Once petition documents are drawn up, only those sponsors can gather signatures, Cozzi said.
“They’re not allowed to leave (petitions) lying around or get other people to get the signatures,” she said. “That’s totally illegal – it’s state law. They are allowed to add additional sponsors through the clerk’s office at any time through the petition process. They have 90 days, maximum, to collect signatures.”
The assembly’s next regular meeting is Tuesday, June 14. Cozzi this week said she hasn’t received an assembly request to include the tax on the agenda.
Tour operator Karen Hess said eliminating the tax is “the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of” and cited tourism’s importance to the local economy.
“If you get rid of the tax, how do you fund the department?” she asked.
McGuire said the tax leads to wasteful spending at the borough and business should “pay its own way, and not expect all these government handouts.”
The borough’s tourism department in the current fiscal year has a $320,000 budget that includes $9,335 in dues, $12,880 in travel and per diem, and $105,400 in advertising.
Borough manager Mark Earnest’s proposed budget has travel and per diem jumping to $18,195, although that amount is comparable to the $18,736 for those expenses in fiscal year 2010.