Rep. Williams: State And Local Sales Tax Bill Will Be Difficult to Approve

A proposed state and local shared sales tax bill has a slim chance of passing in this general assembly.

That’s according to State Representative Ryan Williams. Williams said the challenge for the legislature is that in order to enact the bill, it could affect the amount of discretionary money it has to spend.

“By signing on the bill what I’m saying to the governor and to my local community is that this is of great importance, I would like for us to do it,” Williams said. “But the challenge is being able to find that kind of reoccurring revenue to try to redistribute those funds back to the local communities.”

If the bill passed, City Manager James Mills said it could mean an additional $600,000 in revenue annually that had been generated by the local sales tax.

Williams said there are other bills that explore different routes to disperse the funds back to the local communities. He said one bill looks to phase the funds out of the state’s budget instead of doing it all at once. Williams said this was also done with the death and inheritance tax, and as it relates to the professional privilege tax.

Williams said while he does not believe it has a strong chance in this legislative session, he believes it will have a better chance in the future.

“If the governor doesn’t include this in his baseline budget it’s very difficult for us to find those revenues that are not already committed,” Wiliams said. “For instance, we would have to go and cut something else that he’s put money in in order to fund this because there’s only a certain amount of dollars that we have.”