Hartford
During March’s Town Meeting, voters approved a local option tax on a 1,641-1,309 vote, but the Legislature, which must approve all charter amendments, found that the town had failed to properly notify voters of the language of the proposed charter changes, effectively invalidating that vote.
The town lost revenue due to the delay, because conservative estimates suggest the local option tax will generate $250,000 for the town each year. This time, town officials are trying to ensure that voters are properly informed, said Selectboard Vice Chairwoman Rebecca White.
“The language of what will be changed will be in the ballot box and we’re actually going to hang it up outside in the polling areas,” White said.
The question on the ballot asks whether the town charter should “be amended to authorize the levy of a one percent (1%) rooms and meals/alcoholic beverages tax, the net proceeds of which to be deposited in a capital reserve fund until directed otherwise by vote of the Town.”
White and Selectboard member Mike Morris, both supporters of the tax, said that though the national elections are expected to boost voter turnout, they’re confident the outcome of the vote will be the same as it was in March.
“I am not nervous at all that they’ll change,” said White. “I think it will be the same.”
“I see no reason why people might have changed their mind,” Morris said.
But David Briggs, owner of the Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction, said he’s opposed to the tax because it could slow the town’s business growth.
“Every bureaucracy that’s ever been created has a certain drag,” Briggs said. “It does invade our business, period. If we’re having to collect taxes from people, it’s a drag on our pricing.”
Morris said the tax is unlikely to make a difference in anyone’s purchasing decision, and that it’s a good way to shift some of the tax burden from residents to travelers who enjoy the town’s amenities.
“I’ve never traveled anywhere, vacation or otherwise, that I didn’t stay somewhere because they had a local option tax,” Morris said. “I never considered it.”
But Briggs argued that the measure could open the door to future increases.
“Back when the sales tax passed, it was 3 percent,” he said. “Now it’s 6 (percent). They said it would be for one year. And it’s been 40 years. That’s why this thing has an insidious nature to it.”
After consulting with legal counsel, town officials have gone through the lengthy process, which includes holding duly warned public hearings, over the past few months.
But Briggs said that, until he was called by the Valley News on Monday, he mistakenly thought that the vote would trigger a discussion about whether to levy the tax, rather than triggering the tax itself.
“The proponents of this step were transparent up to a level. But what they were careful to do was not clarify that that would make the local option tax, put it automatically in place, so any of us who might have taken the posture to resist would have done so by now, and we would have been talking about it more vociferously,” Briggs said.
Briggs said he was unsure as to whether he would actively lobby against the measure.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve only known this for 39 seconds. I need to take a deep breath and think about it.”
One consideration, Briggs said, was that he is happy with the current makeup of the Selectboard, even as he opposes this specific measure.
“I’m not a total obstructionist,” he said. “I just have some pretty serious concerns.”
Another proposed charter amendment would strengthen Australian ballot voting at the expense of the traditional floor meeting. It asks whether the town and school district will amend the charter “to provide for the consideration of all budget adoption matters by Australian ballot.”
Under the current system, if a Hartford budget fails at the ballot box on Town Meeting Day, it is reconsidered at a traditional floor meeting.
That measure passed, 1,950- 825, in March, and town officials said they expected it would pass again just as handily next week.
The town recently formed a Charter Commission to consider further changes to the town charter, but any recommendations it makes will not be considered until sometime next year.
If the local option tax is approved by voters, it will be sent to the Legislature for review.
White said Hartford officials hope legislators would approve the change in the spring, which would clear the way for the tax to be implemented sometime in 2017.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.