[B]ENNINGTON — A package of town charter revisions that has generated minimal public comment is headed to the voters on Tuesday.
And local officials wonder if that’s a bad sign. Select Board Chair Thomas Jacobs worries that the lack of controversy could result in low voter turnout.
“The charter is our town’s governing document, so it’s important that the community recognizes that and participates in deciding its content,” Jacobs said.
Donald Campbell, vice chair of the board, says town officials went through a year-long review process with dozens of public meetings “to bring our town charter into the 21st century” and improve Bennington’s governmental structure.
Objections raised
A few items have sparked criticism. Most prominent is a change to allow the Select Board to develop a local option tax plan. Voters on Tuesday are being asked to allow the board to propose an option tax in the future.
Supporters see a 1 percent tax added to state taxes as a way boosting revenue and reducing the burden on property taxpayers.
Mike Bethel and other residents have railed against the option tax proposal.
“No one knows the impact of such a tax on Bennington businesses,” Bethel said in a recent letter to the Bennington Banner. “No study has been done to estimate the impact on the economy. No one knows whether this tax won’t drive more local businesses under or won’t push more shoppers to avoid Bennington.”
Bethel and others have also argued that the tax should have been considered separately, not as part of a package of changes, many of which update language in the 48-year-old town charter or clarify provisions to reflect changes in state law or local government.
Town officials have estimated that an option tax here could generate in the range of $1 million annually, 70 percent of which would be sent back to the town under state option tax program. There currently are 18 communities in Vermont that have implemented a 1 percent addition to state levies on one or more categories of sales.
The four categories allowed are merchandise sales, rooms, meals and alcohol sales. A community can decide to exclude one or more of the categories. Local officials also can designate the revenue to one or more areas of spending in the town budget.
The Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce didn’t endorse the change, but Executive Director Matt Harrington told the Banner: “After some discussion at our board, and based on many opinions, we don’t have a stance on the local option tax. We do feel that the select board and local government should have access to the option tax as one of their many tools. With so many diverse members, when it actually comes to what to do with the option tax, we will support what the local voters and government chooses to do with it should it go that far.”
Option taxes elsewhere
Among the towns with a 1 percent option tax is Wilmington, which enacted the provision in 2012.
“This has certainly helped in a variety of ways,” said Town Manager Scott Tucker.
Asked Friday to describe the town’s experience, Tucker said Wilmington received $322,000 as its share of the tax in fiscal 2017 and $312,000 in fiscal 2018.
The town decided to designate 80 percent of the revenue to community and economic development projects, programs or events, he said, while 20 percent is placed in a fund that can be tapped to assist nonprofit groups in community oriented projects or for similar uses.
In Manchester, which was among the first towns to impose a 1 percent local tax in 1999, the town collected $1,186,865 for this year’s budget and $1,156,266 last year, said Town Manager John O’Keefe.
“We collect all three taxes — sales, rooms, and meals and alcohol,” he said. “We used to collect just sales, but when the state joined the streamline sales tax initiative and clothing was made tax exempt, we lost a lot of our revenue, so we implemented the other two sources.”
O’Keefe said sales tax revenue “has been generally flat over the last several years, with rooms, and meals and alcohol increasing steadily.”
He added that in Manchester the option tax “has allowed the town to keep municipal taxes very low. It funds about 20 percent of our overall operations on the general fund side.”
Numerous revisions
For voters on Tuesday, a full charter with revisions will be available in voting booths. The special election will be held from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with polls at the Bennington Firehouse and at the village office in North Bennington.
Revisions include setting a three-year term for the town manager, after which the contract must be renewed; requiring a review of the manager’s performance annually; designating the Select Board chair as head of town government for all ceremonial purposes; adding an absenteeism provision to allow removal of Select Board members who often miss meetings; calling for the board to adopt board rules of procedure and review them annually.
Also, there are revisions calling for the board to adopt policies for the town manager to follow in purchasing and bidding contracts; allowing the board to change the boundaries of the Downtown Improvement District after a public hearing, rather than require a town vote; clarifying that the downtown district’s taxes will be levied on all taxable properties except for owner-occupied residential properties; and requiring a charter committee review be undertaken every five years.
Information on the charter review process and recommended changes is available here.
