Waitsfield voters will soon be asked to clarify at the ballot box whether to begin the process required to adopt another tax that will attach to a variety of purchases we all commonly make. Those who promote this tax have worked long and hard to develop both the taxing scheme and the purposes to which the tax revenues will be applied. Waitsfield is central to both the taxing and spending components of this proposal.
And yet, information about this taxing proposal is neither clear, readily available nor reliable. The controlling documents for this tax proposal have been amended numerous times; the cited statutory authority for the taxing structure has varied; many of the public’s written questions have received very inadequate responses; these questions and responses are difficult to find; Waitsfield’s recent legal review cites ongoing concerns; and, there is no reliable, objective critique (aka the potential downside) from the promoters.
While all of these issues, and probably more, are likely to be addressed in time, one other is the most important, most imminent and least explained to voters – the significance of the public vote to amend Waitsfield’s charter, to occur on Town Meeting Day 2020.
After numerous starts and stops, the promoters eventually discovered that by law Waitsfield can adopt an option tax within its borders only after amending its town charter to authorize the imposition of such a tax. The entire process requires two townwide votes. Vote No. 1, scheduled for Town Meeting Day 2020, will ask voters to amend the town’s municipal charter to grant the town the authority to impose this tax. It is not a vote to impose the actual tax but rather to establish town authority to do so.
If vote No. 1 passes, then vote No. 2 will occur, presumably at the general election, November 2020. That vote will ask Waitsfield voters to approve the proposed option tax itself. This is the tax we have all heard so much about, over the last year and a half or so, that will increase the current tax on meals, alcohol, rooms and retail sales.
Vote No. 2 will occur only if vote No. 1 passes. Simple message: If Waitsfield voters do not for any reason (and there could be many) support the proposed option tax, casting a vote against authorization on the March 2020 ballot will eliminate the actual tax proposal currently being marketed, at least for now and certainly in its current troublesome form, and eliminate the need for vote No. 2.
Sal Spinosa is vice chair of the Waitsfield Select Board.
