Council votes unanimously to increase tax by a penny; Councilwoman Kay Wagner said she didn’t vote yes
During a special meeting late last Wednesday, the Flomaton Town Council voted unanimously to approve the second reading of an ordinance that will raise the total sales tax in the town to 11 percent, but Councilwoman Kay Wagner said she didn't vote for the tax increase and is still against it.
Wagner said it got confusing and she thought she was voting yes to bring the second reading of the ordinance to the table. She said she had no problem with the second reading but was going to vote no.
She said the next thing she knew, Mayor Dewey Bondurant, Jr., was thanking her and the meeting was adjourned.
“I didn't support the tax and I didn't vote for it,” Wagner said.
The council held its first reading of the ordinance to raise the sale tax by a penny last Monday. That passed on a 5-1 vote with Wagner voting no.
Since the first reading didn't carry by a unanimous vote a second reading was required. The council called a special meeting at 4 p.m. last Wednesday to have the second reading. Minutes of that meeting show Wagner voted yes on the tax increase, but she disagrees.
“I didn't support the tax increase from the beginning and I still don't support the increase,” she said.
Last Wednesday's vote only needed a majority of the council to approve, not a unanimous vote.
The ordinance passed states the penny increase will begin on the first day of the third month following the town of Flomaton notifying the Alabama Department of Revenue. The ordinance states that the extra penny will begin being collected on June 1.
At the town's 11 percent sales tax rate, the town will receive 5 percent, the state will receive 4 percent and the county will receive 2 percent.
Based on previous collections, the extra penny is expected to add about $174,000 per year to the town's budget.
Councilman Jim Johnson, who first asked the rest to the council to consider the increase, said the town has lost revenue from the shutdown of Air Products, the closing of Church's Chicken and NAPA moving to Century.
“I'm looking at it from a business side,” Johnson said during the March 8 meeting. “We have two choices, pass the tax or lay people off.”
Johnson said his support of the tax was two fold: one being that a majority of the sales tax collected in Flomaton is paid by people passing through and it was needed to make up the lost revenue.
