The council voted 4-2 to approve the sales tax increase, with Mayor Robert McKay and Councilman David Thompson dissenting. Their dissent means the increase failed. Or did it?
According to city clerk Bertha Wilson on Tuesday, the 4-2 vote the night before was sufficient for the ordinance to pass. That is according to the “Select Readings for Municipal Officials” from the Alabama League of Municipalities.
A part of the reading states, “A roll call vote for immediate consideration must be unanimous.”
That was what the council did Monday.
Also, the Select Readings states, “In cities and towns of less than 12,000, an affirmative vote of a majority of the whole number of members of the council to which the municipality is entitled, including the mayor, is required to enact any ordinance of permanent operation. This consent should be shown by a yea-and-nay vote.”
Wilson said she immediately called McKay when she discovered this.
“We didn’t rule it a pass,” McKay said Tuesday. “I was under the impression that it had to be a unanimous vote on the first meeting. Regardless of what the book says, I think this council needs to go back and revisit it. Everyone was not on the right page. Everyone left the meeting with the impression that it did not pass.”
When asked if he would call a special meeting to deal with this issue, McKay said he did not think it was critical enough to do that.
“We are going to revisit it in two weeks anyway,” he said. “The right thing to do is present it back to the council in two weeks and let them vote it up or down. I don’t want anything to go in by default.”
Councilman Mike Sheffield said Tuesday there appeared to be some confusion when everyone left the meeting Monday.
“We have talked about our finances every month,” Sheffield said. “I was surprised when the mayor and David voted against it. If it is not unanimous from the city, I don’t think we need to do it. It’s too important not to have unanimous support on it.”
During a pre-meeting public hearing, Walter Murray wanted to know why the council was asking Ashville residents for a tax increase.
“It does not make sense to me,” Murray said. “Why the increase? We do not know what’s going on in this city. Everyone has lost money due to the economy and everyone’s income is going down.”
Murray said what this will do is run Ashville residents somewhere else to shop.
“Gas is 22 cents cheaper in Trussville than here in Ashville,” Murray said. “I save money going to Trussville to buy gas because I also buy my groceries there. If the increase solves the problem, then I don’t see anything wrong with it. If it doesn’t, it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money. I’m against increase for the sake of increase.”
McKay said he has fought this issue for 22 years.
“I’m against any type of sales increase,” McKay said. “I’m not for it. Half of our citizens go out of town to buy groceries now.”
The city’s most recent sales tax increase came in September 2001; Ordinance 2001-02 was passed by McKay and the council to increase sales taxes one-half percent from 7.5 percent to 8 percent. At that meeting in 2001, Councilman Willie B. Turner wanted to increase the tax by one and a half percent; McKay said he would go one-half percent, but no more.
On Tuesday, McKay said he had forgotten about going up the one-half percent in 2001.
“I got to thinking on the way home after the council meeting Monday that we did round off the sales tax from 7.5 percent to 8 percent,” McKay said. “I do not deny that I could have voted in favor of it and admit I was in error. Honestly, I forgot about the issue. I voted in favor of the sales tax increase to help pay for the new municipal building we were about to move into.”
McKay added that last fall, he told council members they did not need to give out raises.
“We gave out a 50 cent per hour raise across the board and that is costing us an additional $30,000 annually,” McKay said. “Personally, we should be more responsible on giving raises and hiring employees.”
The council did approve an increase in the basic rate for a residential minimum water bill, from $14 to $16.50 for the first 2,000 gallons of water used. The next 8,000 gallons would increase from $3.30 per 1,000 gallons to $4 per 1,000 gallons. The next 20,000 gallons of water used would remain the same at $3.03 per 1,000 gallons.
“Water and sewer has to operate,” McKay said. “If all the policemen and firemen leave, we can call our neighbors to help us. We know we have to keep the water system up.
“Sewer pumps cost about $10,000 each. We have to take in enough money to take care of the employees, equipment, etc. I think this will put the water department in excellent shape.”
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