Councilman David Reddick in Monday’s work session asked that the city hold a public hearing to get feedback from residents about his proposal to create the occupational tax, which would be levied on those who work in the city.
“Maybe everybody wants to buy in,” Reddick said, speaking of the discussing the proposal in a public hearing.
At a work session on March 27 Reddick first discussed creating the tax which Anniston City Manager Kent Davis has estimated could bring in between $4 to $5 million.
Mayor Jack Draper said that before asking for public input on the matter, city leaders need to know how the tax could affect the city’s efforts at attracting new business and the workers who would pay it.
“We need to weigh the pros and cons,” Draper said.
Councilman Jay Jenkins and Councilwoman Millie Harris both agreed that more information is needed before moving forward.
“I don’t want us to overthink this. Let’s take some action as well,” Reddick said.
Davis suggested that if council members were to move forward with the proposal they should earmark the money generated by the tax for specific purposes. Council members didn’t settle during the meeting at what, exactly, the money should be used for.
Davis said he would ask for more information on the tax to be brought to the council at a later meeting.
After discussion of the occupational tax, Councilman Ben Little discussed numerous items of concern to him. Among them was Little’s request for the council to ask itself whether the city wants a city school system, but the suggestion prompted confusion among other council members as to what, exactly, Little was asking for.
Little said Anniston schools are “limping along” and “I just want it on the agenda. Do we want a school system?”
Davis asked Little if he was asking for a resolution to be voted on at the next regular meeting as to whether or not the council wanted to retain its school system and Little replied that he did not want such a resolution.
“I don’t understand the purpose,” Jenkins said.
Davis said Little’s suggestion to include the question during the next meeting would require a second from another council member, which it did not get during Monday’s meeting.
Little also discussed his proposal to place the McClellan Development Authority into receivership, and for the city to take control of McClellan’s land.
The MDA board in April voted unanimously against dissolving itself, after a proposal to do so was brought up in a previous MDA meeting. The proposal would have allowed Anniston to negotiate transfer of McClellan’s industrial property to the Calhoun County Economic Development Council to develop the land, and would have given the remainder of MDA-owned McClellan land to Anniston.
Barring more development deals, MDA officials have said, the board would run out of money in 3 or 4 years. According to the board’s governing document if that happened the city would receive the land.
“Stop fooling around and let’s get it under our control,” Little said at Monday’s meeting.
Draper said the MDA’s solvency is a “tremendous concern.”
Jenkins, who was appointed by the council to a committee to look into the matter, along with Davis and Draper, said the MDA board made a unanimous vote to not dissolve, and that that was the “best decision at this time” but that it’s clear the problem of the MDA running out of money isn’t going away.
©2017 The Anniston Star (Anniston, Ala.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
