During a Feb. 20 town hall-style meeting in the Charleston City Hall courtroom, officials championed a proposed 2% sales tax levy on locally prepared food and beverages and urged voters to support it at the polls on Tuesday.
A March 3 special election gives registered voters in Charleston the opportunity to mark a paper ballot for or against the tax. In order to pass, the measure must garner the support of 60% of those who vote.
Voting will take place at the usual precinct locations for municipal elections.
Wards 1 and 2 will vote in the City Hall courtroom.
Wards 3 and 5 will vote in the Charleston Elementary School gymnasium.
Ward 4 will vote at the Charleston Rotary Club.
In-person absentee voting for senior citizens and others who are eligible is ongoing in the city clerk’s office at City Hall. Absentee balloting is available between the hours of 8 a.m. and noon, and 1-5 p.m., through Friday, Feb. 28, and from 8 a.m. until noon on Saturday, Feb. 29.
A state sales tax of 7% is presently charged on each $1 of the purchase price. The proposed 2% city food tax would be tacked onto the 7% tax at the point of sale. For example, a prepared food item that presently costs $1.07 with the current sales tax would cost $1.09 if the food tax is implemented.
Restaurants and other outlets, such as convenience stores with a delicatessen that prepares food and beverages on the premises, would be subject to the 2% tax.
The Mississippi State Tax Commission estimates that the 2% levy will generate about $40,000 each year, Charleston City Attorney Tommy Reynolds has said.
City officials plan to use funds generated by the special tax for parks and recreation, and tourism promotion.
“This will create summer jobs and be an economic boost for our town, which we could use,” Mayor Sedrick Smith told a crowd of about 40 people last Thursday. “So, we’re asking and praying that the community will get on board with us.”
Smith said the city’s present budgetary allocation for parks and recreation, which comes from the city’s general fund, is $5,000 per year.
“You know as well as I know that five grand doesn’t take you anywhere for parks and recreation,” he added.
Proceeds from the 2% tax would be earmarked, Reynolds explained.
“The money has to be put in a separate fund and can only be spent for parks, recreation and tourism to promote the community,” he noted. “Every dime that goes in that has to be spent for these things. It’s locked off from anything else.”
If passed in Tuesday’s referendum, Reynolds said the tax would be effective May 1.
Both Smith and Reynolds said a 2% sales tax on prepared food and beverages has been approved by voters and levied by cities and towns around the state to support parks and recreation.
“Here in the city of Charleston, we want to put some things in place,” said Smith. “This is groundbreaking. Nothing is final, nothing is set in stone. We need your input, we need your questions and we need your comments on this.”
Already, the city has drawn up plans for a proposed community swimming pool that would be located on city-owned property near Charles-ton Elementary School. Grant and other funds are available to assist that effort.
“We’re hoping and praying that our swimming pool comes,” said Smith. “We talked with the school and the school wants to establish a swimming program. We have a design and everything on paper, so if we can get that swimming pool going, volleyball, swimming, basketball, baseball, T-ball, the sky’s the limit. You can go wherever you want to go with it.”
The mayor stressed that not only would the tax proceeds be utilized for physical sports, but for education, as well.
“We definitely can’t leave our education needs out,” he noted.
Ward 3 City Commissioner Tawanda Smith, department head of parks and recreation, said facilities are ready for summer reading and tutoring.
“We already have the National Guard armory, so we have a facility to do some of the things that we plan to do,” she noted. “The facility and five acres of land come with it, so there are some other things that we could do.”
Ms. Smith said improvements are envisioned for the city park on Depot Street.
“We would like to put a fence around it and do some other things,” she said. “We have another project on Shade Street where we’re putting a walking trail, like a green space. So we have some ideas. We just need the funds. When this [tax] passes, we will be able to do some of the things that we’ve talked about, and we will be able to have a healthier city and a healthier community with healthier children.”
No one attending Thursday’s town hall meeting voiced opposition to the proposed 2% sales tax.
Cedric Terry, who formerly directed a summer youth league in Charleston, said he sees the need for increased recreational opportunities.
“We’ve never had a real official park in Charleston, and I think it would be a great way to bring the community together for the blacks and whites,” he noted.
Terry said youth baseball, basketball and football programs could not only tackle the obesity rate among local youngsters, but benefit public school athletics, as well.
“I talk to [CHS head baseball coach Michael] Hargett all the time, and he tells me how the [school] baseball program is going down,” Terry noted. “We haven’t had a [summer youth] baseball program since we incorporated with the Robert Hill Youth Foundation, and those are things we could do as far as getting all the kids back in baseball.”
Terry said he assisted the cities of Grenada and Carrollton with starting up United States Specialty Sports Association sanctioned programs, adding that he would enjoy nothing more than lending a hand to such an effort in his own hometown.
Local church pastor Ricky Garvin said he supports the 2% targeted sales tax and sees the potential that it holds.
“I really think it’s a great idea,” Garvin added. “It’s definitely needed in Charleston within our community. If we get it passed, I’m sure there has to be a lot of planning about what type of programs, organization, and whatever we can do to help that we will be more than happy to do.”
Reynolds said the types of programs that parks and recreation funding could provide can offer hope and help to keep youth on the straight and narrow.
“If children aren’t given positive opportunities, what exactly do we think is going to happen with them? They’re going to be doing something, and if you give them something good and wholesome, they can take advantage of it,” Reynolds noted. “If you don’t, what exactly are they going to be doing? These programs can develop role models. We have some good people who are trying to do something to keep this community going forward and viable as a community. The scripture says, ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish.’ And where there’s no vision, the town will perish.”
The mayor said officials hope to garner the necessary support for the 2% tax.
“I think we can make it happen. We’re pushing hard,” he noted. “We’re hoping that on March 3, everyone will come out and support this. We need it.”
The 2% tax is authorized to be charged under Senate Bill 2854, introduced in the 2019 Mississippi Legislature by District 14 state Sen. Lydia Chassaniol, R-Winona.
IN THE PHOTO: The former National Guard armory in Charleston, pictured here on Feb. 4, 2019, is now owned by the city and could host local educational and recreational programs if funds are generated by a proposed 2% restaurant tax, proponents say. (File photo by Clay McFerrin)
