Hume suggests a tax of either a half cent or 1 percent “on all goods and services provided by and at local hotels in Hamilton, and at the future Spooky Nook complex.” He noted the Liberty Center shopping center in Liberty Twp. has a 0.5-cent sales tax. That tax goes to the Liberty Community Authority, which uses the fees for the upkeep of the center and other purposes.
There is a problem with Hume’s proposal, Andy Brossart, the city’s financial adviser on the Spooky Nook project, told this media outlet Tuesday: It wouldn’t be legal.
New taxes will be levied on hotel stays (3 percent) and on eligible sales at Spooky Nook (2 percent),’ Brossart said. But: “We are limited on what those moneys can be used for under state law. We cannot pay for those items if they are not Community Authority Improvements.”
The hotel- and sales taxes that are planned will be used for parking improvements Spooky Nook will need, Brossart said.
Hume also thinks the city should only seek a five-year levy, rather than one lasting 10 years that the council has voted to place on the March 17 ballot, to start fixing streets before first visitors will arrive at Spooky Nook in 2021.
“I think we need to consider my idea, and make it happen, so that we are investing in the city, and the citizens, because, I’m sorry, there’s no reason we should be jumping straight to, ‘Let’s raise taxes,’” he said. “There has got to be other solutions, and I believe this is one of them.”
He doesn’t know how much the proposed taxes might raise, but said, “even at a low-ball estimate, you’re looking at probably about a half-million dollars.”
If half of that, or $250,000 per year, would go toward street repaving as he proposes, it would generate 8 percent as much as the proposed street-repair levy.
Jack Whalen, who is leading the citizen-led effort for a 3.9-mill tax levy that would last 10 years, noted Hume was unable to predict how much the proposed sales tax would bring in. But Whalen said advocates of the tax levy know it will generate $3.1 million per year and cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $175 per year.
“There’s not enough hotels in Hamilton to generate enough money, in my mind,” Whalen said. “Maybe down the road it would be OK to look at.”
“I’m not sure who controls it, whose permission you’d have to get to do it,” Whalen said.
Hume said, “we could turn around and use those funds, not just for our roads, but for other programs that need to be funded.”
Hume suggests 50 percent go to roads, 30-40 percent go to safety forces, and 10-20 percent go to community programs like a youth activities league to give Hamilton children and teens more to do. He envisions boxing, basketball, baseball, fishing, homework assistance, life skills and cooking being activities.
“Make it all-inclusive, not just for the kids that are athletic, but for everyone,” he said. “It’ll help engage our youth, educate them.”
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