Mtg. Concerning Implementing a County Beverage Tax

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Mtg. Concerning implementing a County Beverage Tax



On December 19th, 2023 there will be a joint County Commissioners and County Council Meeting to discuss the implementation of a County Beverage Tax. The funds are targeted for a water park and other improvements.

The Meeting will take place in the County Commissioners Meeting Room, in the County Courthouse at 9 am in the morning.

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Parks Board discusses proposed new tax

NOELLE MAXWELL | DAILY NEWS

GREENSBURG – Parks board members have mixed feelings about the food and beverage tax public hearing held earlier this month. Parks Department director Teresa Kovacich described the hearing as “well attended,” adding, “there were more speaking against,” the food and beverage tax than for it. Hearing attendees, Kovacich observed, seemed “to be asking the same questions of Bryan [Robbins] over and over and over. No matter what he said, he seemed to be repeating himself.”

Robbins felt the hearing “was good,” noting “everybody got a chance to hear each other. I don’t think anything got too out of hand. I think it was a good dialogue.”

Board member Sue Fortman described it as “terribly organized.” She elaborated, “they should not have started out with questions. I think you should have had some discussion first,” to explain the proposed tax, “and it would’ve stopped half of those questions. I just thought it was ridiculous and then for them to still move the [county council] meeting,” to the evening of November 21, “when [Kovacich] kept telling them we won’t have it by then – they could care less.”

Robbins believed the board gathered considerable public input regarding the project, which he said was good for the project. “It’s not something that anybody takes lightly,” he said. “We don’t want to be seen as a food and beverage tax committee,” seeking a project to implement a food and beverage tax onto. Robbins emphasized the purpose is to raise funds needed for a new community pool and the food and beverage tax was “presented to the council as a means of funding that pool.” He added if the council chose to pursue the tax, “great.” If they choose another option, “that’s great. Our focus is the pool and getting that renovated. We need to make sure we still stay focused on that.” Robbins reminded the board not to get “too caught up” in the food and beverage tax.

The county council meeting was moved to 6 p.m., Nov. 21. Ordinarily, the county council meets at 9 a.m. Kovacich told the board the meeting time was changed to accommodate attendees’ work schedules. “It’s not considered a public hearing this time,” she added, “it’s their regular county council meeting.” The park board’s suggestion, according to Robbins, is to table the food and beverage tax, though he also noted at one point he suggested removing the tax from the agenda. “I think,” Fortman said, “they would rather just say no to tomorrow and be done with it. I was upset the way that whole thing went.”

“I would hope,” said Robbins, “they would vote to table it because we don’t have the numbers or the person we’re working with yet.” Robbins told the board the reason for that is “because we’re using ARPA and READI funds. There’s a federal process in place for sending up proposals, receiving responses and what’s called the ‘build, operate, transfer process’ which we were looking into as additional steps.” These processes, Robbins explained, “pushed back all of our time.”

“I don’t think,” Fortman said, “that the people at the public hearing understood any timeline whatsoever there. They have no clue how it was happening.” Robbins then said, “we’re not on a set timeline. The timeline that we need to be concerned with is the funds from the READI and the ARPA” programs must be “committed to a project by the end 2024. We can do that, but we need to watch out,” for construction season. If the project is pushed back too far, it might be delayed due to construction scheduling. “All those funds,” Robbins finished, “need to be expended by 2026. If they aren’t, we lose them.”

Another board member expressed that he felt “they were worried too much about minor details that were going to be taken care of other ways and later on,” at the public hearing. He added he wished “the word tax would be like donation,” speculating that citizens don’t like the word tax.

Fortman said, “I would’ve liked to see the renovations” displayed at the public hearing, saying it was like the public didn’t “even know what you’re talking about here.” Robbins said one misconception citizens have is they “think it’s further along than what it is. Some of that’s to do with social media – somebody was stating [on social media] that it was already being collected.”

The county council ultimately voted Nov. 21 to postpone making a final decision on the food and beverage tax until January 2024, pending further information about the pool project.

The next park board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 13, at Stone’s in Millhousen.



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