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Taxing Questions on Tuesday's Ballot | Vanguard Press | June 4, 1982

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  • 8/11/2019 Taxing Questions on Tuesday's Ballot | Vanguard Press | June 4, 1982

    1/1

    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


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