Last
month, we were honored to host Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett to present on
his city’s successes and challenges using local option sales tax.
It
is truly a rags to riches story. Not long ago, Oklahoma City had one of the
most depressed economies in the nation. Today, the city’s economy is one of the
nation’s most robust.
Oklahoma
City has invested nearly $2 billion in schools and quality-of-life
infrastructure through the innovative MAPS (Metropolitan Area Projects) program
– funded by local option sales tax. That investment generated nearly $6 billion
in private sector investment.
Local
option sales tax is a means for local citizens to decide if they wanted to tax
themselves to pay for a specific project to address a local or regional need.
If the citizens approve the tax, it is instituted and the project proceeds. If they
don’t, no new tax is instituted and the project does not proceed.
So,
what do Oklahoma City’s experiences have to do with us? We’re not Oklahoma
City. We have different needs. We have a smaller population base. Local option
sales tax isn’t even an option here.
With
the exception of the last item (local option isn’t available here), these are
actually reasons why local option sales tax IS such a good tool – each
community can use it for its needs, based on its own population base. It’s not
a “one size fits all” approach. We don’t have to be Oklahoma City for it to
work.
But…as
I said, local option sales tax is not an option for us at this time. We first
need the Idaho legislature to grant that authority to all local governments.
Right now, only small resort cities can take advantage of this powerful tool.
The
COMPASS Board strongly supports general local option
sales tax authority legislation. We invited Mayor Cornett to the Treasure
Valley to learn about his city’s program to further that discussion. People ask
me if that means we are promoting the Oklahoma City “model” of local option
sales tax. The answer is “no.” Others have asked if I think we should we adopt
Utah’s model. Again, my answer is “no.” We should create our own “Idaho” model.
Visits
like Mayor Cornett’s allow us to learn from what others have done. This is the one
advantage we have in being one of the last states to allow local option sales
tax – we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We can see what has worked and what
has not. We can learn from other region’s successes and challenges.
Then,
we can look at all we’ve learned in light of Idaho’s needs, concerns, and
population base, and craft a model that works for Idaho.
It
is time to get past arguing over “if” Idaho should allow local option sales tax
and instead focus on how an “Idaho model” could function to serve the needs of the
citizens of the State of Idaho and the Treasure Valley.
Are
you ready to learn more?
Don’t let
the Treasure Valley fall through the cracks.
