taxing questions on tuesday's ballot | vanguard press | june 4, 1982
TRANSCRIPT
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8/11/2019 Taxing Questions on Tuesday's Ballot | Vanguard Press | June 4, 1982
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T a x i n g O u e s t i o n sO n T u e s d a y ' s
B a l l o tBURLINGFON
tHREE DAYS BEFORE
Queen City voters go tothe
polls to decide how local ~LX
dollars should be collected and
spent, City Hall will host a con-
ICrence sponsored by the M,~ur's
office and the Union of Radical
Rllitical Economists (URPE) to
consider some of these same
q u e s t i o n s .URJ'E, founded in 1968 and
composed mostly of academics,
works toward creating, accord-
ing to its l iterature, "a continu-
ing critique of the capitalist
sy stem , the construction of PI1.)-
gressive social polic~~ and the
creation of socialist alternatives."
The title of the conference will
be 'J\lternative Solutions toLocal
Problems."
And on Saturday, while the
radical political scientists, econ-
ornists and cit}' planners discusssuch solutions, Burlington's VJr-
ious political camps will be mak-
ing pitches for and against one
of them in particular, in earn-
paigns going door todoor and
o v e r t h e telephone ;U1Uairwaves.
Next Tuesday voters will gct
their first chance to express their
opinion of Mayor Sanders' pro-
posed three percent gross re oceipts t ax on restaurants and
hotels that serve meals. '111CY
w il l al so dec ide on more tradi-iional p roperty tax increases to
fund pal' raises fix the police
and capital improvements tor the
Street Department,
flue&Iion 1: TheS_
S tr ee t D ep ar t m en t o f f ic i al s
contend that their budget needs
have been ignored for the past
eleven years, and that cit)' street
repairs are badly overdue as a
result. TI,e Street Department
is seeking a 32 cent propertytax increase a s a "stopgap" m eas -ure until new funds GUlbe found,
-11,emoncy would be used for
capita l improvements - such as
purchasing street sweepers and
sidewalk plows, and repaving
streets, curbs, and sidewalks.
Street Department Superinten-
dent james Ogden says e..en "this5713,000 is a minimum to stop
us from spending great gobslater"
Mayor Sanders agrees with
Ogden that a 32 cent tax willonly scratch the surface of the
Street Department's long-neg-
lected needs. However, Sanders
isn't supporting the tax.
111e Mayor argues that the
Street Department's "enormous
financial problems" need to be
Iilnded through alternative sourc-
es like his gross reccipts tax
rather than "hilling up the prop-
e::rtyowners" once::again.
Ogden, on the other hand,
says a tax is n ee de d n o w a s a"cushion" while new methods
of ti.lI1ding.are developed.
flIu$tUm Z: TheCop.
Despite his repeated con-
demnation of higher property
~es, Mayor S,mders supporlS
the Police Department's pro-
POsed 7 cent property tax in-crease.
flue&Iion 3: Thes..........
AI,." " " " "
Opponents of the gross receipts lax.Above, at a Radisson Ballroom press conference: James Gatti of the UVM business school;Jim
Gilson, School Board president and restaurant owner; Pat Burns, BRHA president and ownerof three restaurants; and Republican state representative TedRiehle.
Below: BernieW,*" theCaJijOrnia political consultant hired toorcbestrate a campaign porln:ryingthe lax referendum as mysterious and sinister, displays his displeasure at being photographed
Questions and conflicting an-
swers have been flying around
.town for the past two weeks on
the gross receipts tax. -11,eitem
on the ballot asks, "Shall the vot-ers of the Cityof Burlington urge
the City Council to pass in a
timely fashion an ordinance im-
posing a gross receipts tax upon'
persons engaged in the hotel, res-taurant and bar business?" 'The
Burlington Restaurant and Hotel
Association is campaigning hard
for a no vote on the question,
which is the first test of Sanders'
alternative tax ideas.While the Mayor has admit-
ted that "it is not a perfect tax,"
he maintains it is his only alter-
native allowed under the city
charter to the property tax - a
tax that "does not necessarily
reflect the wealth a person has."
The measure's opponenlS claim
it discriminates unfuirly against
one particular industry.
Figtares being presented to the
public by the BRHA and the
Mayor's office don't match. BRHAPresident l 'a t- Bums accuses San-
ders of overestimating the pos-
sible revenues from the tax by
neglecting to consider that ma-
tels and take-out restaurants will
not have to pay it. But Assistant
City Attorney john J'rdllCO,a close
advisor to Saiu!ers, main~ns that
his l'CIeJ1ueestimate of $875,000
to 5 I million is "right on the
money." Bums says the city canonly hope for 5500,000 "of
which 5560,000 has already
been promised to the streets and
police."
As part of its anti-tax media
blitz, the BRHA is fighting one
Bernie with another The A1;sO-
ciation has hired Bernie Walp, a
political consultant from Cali-fornia, to orchestrate a 15-daycampaign under the slogan, "Stop
the Unknown food and Bever-ag e Tax." A Walp campaign flyerasks, "Have you ever heard of
anything SO ridiculous in your
life?...They are asking us to vote
on a new tax before any of the
details have been worked OUl."(fur more on Walp see related
article, p. 9.)
Also hired wa s Dr james EGatti, an economist from the
Urtiversity of Wrrnont's School
ofBusiness Administration. Gatti
notes in a 13 page repon pre-
pared for the BRHA that an
increase in re~1 sales taxes in
173American cities caused anaverage drop of sLx percent in
retail sales. While he had no fig-
ures on cities with rooms andmeals taxes, he claims that Bur-
lington restauranlS miglll suffer
similar losses.
Bums says the BRHA mter
campaign, which also includes
a phone calling drive, will costat least 55,000.
- Peter Fnryne, Diana Greeneand Eric Sonmsen
Voters rejected a similar 12
cent increase to r t h e c o p s i n
March by over 400 votes, At that
time Sanders opposed the tax
hike on the principle of oppos-ing "splinter" taxes in general(taxes earmarked for a specific
dep-artment rather than the city's
general fund)."I realize there are some in -
consistencies here," the Mayor
said Wednesday. But he added
that "in the long run" the tax
hike, which would raise about
S 150,000 for police salary in-
creases, would be "good eco-
nomics" for the city.
Ifthe tax passes, starting sal-
aries for Burlington police offic-ers would jump from 5229 to
5269 per week, Police Chief Rich-ard Beaulieu claims that upping
wages to that level would make
salaries "more C'Ompetitive" with
police departrnenlS in SUlTOund-
ing areas.fur example, in Essex police
stan at 5250 per week. And next
month Wmooski police officers
will receive the benefits of a
recently approved pay r:tise that
wi IIboost smrting salaries to5242 per week. Both Essex and
Winooski olrer dental insurance
as a fringe benefit; Burlington
does not.
Rllice Commission Chainnan
Antortio Rlmerleau saysthat t.'\tIlan additional '40 for the men
isn't enough when,one considers
the fuCl that Burlington cops
cover "the state's toughest beat"
WE VERMONT VANGUAR