For the second year in a row, the Kentucky General Assembly has failed to pass a bill that would allow voters to amend the state constitution to permit local option sale tax referendums.
House Bill 2 passed the House in mid- March but was denied even a committee hearing in the more conservative state Senate.
“In Kentucky, in order for an issue to mature and for people to get comfortable with something major, it has to be out in the General Assembly for a couple of years before lawmakers get the courage to vote on it,” said J.D. Chaney, deputy executive director of the Lexington-based Kentucky League of Cities, which favored passage of the local tax option.
The legislation would have placed on the fall ballot a question about amending the state constitution to allow cities and counties to hold local option sales tax referendums. In these special referendums, voters would decide if their local governments should levy a limited sales tax increase of up to 1 percent to pay for proposed infrastructure projects such as convention centers, city parks, sewage plants and so on. The tax would have an end date and would be eliminated after the project is paid off . Each proposed project would be voted on by citizens, who can say no to the proposal if they don’t like it.
“Because it is associated with a tax, some have misconstrued its purpose and may view it as a tax increase,” said Chaney. “That’s the case even though it is limited in nature, project specific, has a sunset clause at the end and is approved by local voters.
The tax increase line of thinking may have influenced Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, who is the Senate’s legislative “traffic cop.”
“I don’t think that’s the right approach for Kentuckians right now,” Thayer told WFPL public radio. Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, told the station he supported the bill but would not guide it through his chamber.
Because it dealt with a constitutional amendment, the measure would have needed 23 votes from the 38-member Senate in order to pass. But the needed support from senators never materialized.
The city of Lexington supported the local option sales tax bill, said Susan Straub, spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Gray.
“However, we did not specifically propose projects for this funding,” she said.