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Citizens air views at parks tax forum
Getting people to come to meetings is hard, JD Kehrman, Nevada city manager, said in response to a comment from local builder Bill Erwin during Wednesday's public forum on the renewal of the city's parks sales tax.
Although about half of the approximately 30 people attending Wednesday's public forum on the proposed changes in the city's 1/2 cent sales tax either worked for the city or were on the parks board or planning commission, there were about a dozen people who had no affiliation with the city, including several who were opposed to the tax, in attendance.
Erwin went on to ask at what point does the city stop taxing residents and realize that it needs to do the same thing as area businesses and families.
"We have to make do with what we have," Erwin said.
Kehrman said that the city has about $1.5 million from the parks sales tax earmarked for new construction, but that money could not be used to make repairs on Walton Pool, which was renovated with park sales tax money. Those repairs had to be paid with money from the general fund.
"It's hard to explain why that is a good use of tax money," he said.
The current parks sales tax brings in between $700,000 and $750,000 each year and that money can only be used for the construction of those projects listed on the ballot.
Using any of that money for any other purpose, including maintenance of parks facilities or for operating expenses for the parks department, is illegal, Kehrman said.
He said that all of the money collected from the current park sales tax, which expires in 2014, will only be used for the completion of those projects the voters approved in 2005. The renovation of Earp Park, work on the clubhouse at the Frank E. Peters Municipal Golf Course and walking trails, still need to be completed.
Currently the city transfers about $660,000 per year from the city's general fund to the parks department for operating and maintenance costs. What Kehrman and the city council is proposing is for voters to approve making the parks sales tax permanent and to allow that money to be used for the maintenance and operating expenses for the parks department, as well as capital improvements. It will also permanently roll the parks real and personal property tax to zero.
This will free up the money that is now being transferred to the parks department from the general fund for operating and maintenance expenses, to be used to finance the construction of a new public safety building.
"We don't need a new tax," Kehrman said.
In fact, the city cannot establish a new sales tax to build a new public safety building.
He said that the state does not give the city of Nevada the power to levy a public safety sales tax to finance a new facility.
"We already have a capital improvement sales tax for the sewer treatment plant," he said.
All that is left is money from the general fund.
Kehrman said that the current public safety building, which is located at what is now the second busiest intersection in town, was built in 1957 and at one time housed most of the city functions. Today the Missouri Department of Transportation would not allow the city to build the fire station so close to a traffic light.
Today it is only used for police, fire, municipal courts and city council.
However, Kehrman said the facility is still overcrowded and neither the police department nor the fire department has the space necessary to properly do their jobs. For example, the police department does not have anywhere to interview victims in private. And all of the storage and training area that used to be available in the basement of the building is not usable because of water leaks that have led to a mold problem.
The fire department has to store several of its trucks in the garage at the back of the City Hall building and then use part of the parking for drying hoses and other purposes. And the doors on the fire truck bays are so small that the fire trucks barely fit.
Kehrman said that his proposal calls for a new public safety building to be built somewhere on the 100 block of South Ash and to retain Earp Park. The property the city purchased last fall in the 300 block of West Cherry will be used for city hall parking. He said the city hall does not need to be replaced.