Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer admitted defeat on Monday for his efforts to pass a constitutional amendment that would allow local communities to vote for temporary sales tax increases that would fund projects.
“Good ideas never die: We weren't successful passing local option,” Fischer said on his Twitter account. “We’ll be back in 2015. The more people learn, the more supportive they are.”
In an interview Fischer said he is still working to get the 60 votes needed but believes supporters are a “handful” short.
Fischer, who was at the Capitol as he has been frequently in recent weeks pushing for the bill, made his comments after House Speaker Greg Stumbo said he believes the count is even a “little bit less” than the 10 votes it lacked on Friday.
“We pushed and pushed and pushed, but it doesn’t look to me like that there could be enough votes rounded up to pass that thing,” said Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, who initially opposed the measure but reversed himself after talking with Gov. Steve Beshear.
Stumbo said there was some doubt that the Senate would vote on local option even if the House passed it.
Fischer said, however, he was happy with the progress made on the issue this year.
“We’ve come so incredibly far on this from when the session started,” Fischer said. “Obviously people never thought we’d be at this stage and time is our friend in terms of people, as they learn more about this, they are for it.”
Fischer said he heard from mayors from throughout the state over the weekend who are interested in paying for projects with the local option tax.
“We all know that we can’t count on money coming from Frankfort,” he said.
The amendment, if approved by legislators and voters, in House Bill 399 would allow local governments to have a referendum to allow voters to decide if they wanted to increase the sales tax by up to 1 percent to pay for a specific capital project.
The second half of the local option proposal — House Bill 551, which is the companion enabling legislation — also has not come to the floor for a vote.