By Eric Francis, Standard Correspondent
QUECHEE — Voters at Hartford’s annual Town Meeting on March 1 are going to get another chance to consider the imposition of the so-called “local option tax” that they shot down three years ago.
In 2013 memories of the dip in business revenues caused by the one-two punch of the Great Recession and Tropical Storm Irene were still fresh on the minds of local hoteliers and bar owners who spoke out against the proposed one-percent addition to the levy on rooms, meals, and alcoholic beverages purchased within the bounds of the town of Hartford.
Several other towns in Vermont, including Woodstock, Colchester and Williston already impose such a tax within their boundaries and some members of the Hartford select board have long felt the town is effectively “leaving money on the table” by not availing itself of a revenue stream that is seen as largely affecting visitors from out-ofstate, travelers who, proponents argue, are unlikely to either notice nor care about the small additional bite to their wallets.
Hartford Selectman Dick Grassi told those voters gathered for a budget presentation Monday evening the proposed tax would be “supported mostly be visitors,” adding, “I totally support what the board has decided.”
Selectman Simon Dennis went a step further and suggested that the “net impact will be to reduce the taxes on Hartford residents.”
“The impact, since it’s one percent, is so small,” Dennis continued, “and the benefit is so significant.”
Select board member Sandy Mariotti put the new tax in the context of a town-wide grand list which has declined enough in recent years to leave a noticeable revenue shortfall from the boom years preceding the Great Recession.
“This would allow Hartford to profit more that $250,000 a year on approximately $35 million in annual revenue,” Mariotti said.
The argument that the tax would only raise a relatively small amount of Hartford’s $16 million dollar annual budget cut both ways in the arguments for and against it.
Most of Hartford’s hotel rooms are clustered around the interchange of Interstates 89 and 91 but there are also a considerable number of restaurants and inns that serve meals and drinks in Quechee and other corners of the town which would also have to comply with any such tax which would come on top of the existing statewide 9 percent room and meals tax and 10 percent tax on alcohol.
“I don’t think you’ve done the analysis this warrants. You’re all guessing. You’re all going ‘This is money we can get’ so you are going to get it,” charged Hartford resident Todd Allen at Monday’s meeting where he repeatedly made the point that “when prices go up, demand goes down in a competitive market.”
The selectmen stressed that if the voters approve the tax this time around then all of the revenue it generates will be placed directly into a ‘Capital Repair and Replacement’ reserve fund and any proposed expenditures from the new reserve fund would have to be directly approved by the voters rather than by just the board members.
The mechanism for setting up the new tax and the special fund are articles 15 and 16 respectively on this year’s warning for the annual Hartford Town Meeting and will be voted on by Australian ballot.
Article 15 reads: Shall the Charter of the Town of Hartford be amended to authorize the levy of a one percent (1%) room and meals/ alcoholic beverages tax, the net proceeds of which to be deposited in a capital reserve fund until directed otherwise by vote of the Town.
Article 16 reads: Shall the Town of Hartford establish a capital repair and replacement reserve fund, to be known as the Town of Hartford Capital Reserve Fund, into which there shall be deposited Town room and meals/alcoholic beverages tax net revenues until directed otherwise by vote of the Town. The effectiveness of this article is conditioned upon the approval of Article 15.
Selectwoman Mariotti said that she called a handful of businesses in Woodstock to ask how they had been impacted by last year’s addition of a local option tax and she was told their initial fears had been an increase in paperwork and a loss of customers. “I was told there were no significant workload increases and no loss of business,” Mariotti reported.
“This could bring in $1,250,000 (to Hartford) over the course of five years,” Mariotti said, asking, “What could the town do with that?”
The next opportunity for public input on the proposed tax will take place Monday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. at the Hartford High School Auditorium during “Candidate’s Night” which will included discussions about both the proposed town and school budgets.
This article first appeared in the February 11, 2016 edition of the Vermont Standard.