May 14, 2009
It’s been a while since I visited this blog. A number of things have been going on to divert my attention.
1. I went to a college reunion in Las Vegas in mid-April with 15 ol’ fraternity brothers from Indiana University. Don’t worry, though, no one did a keg stand, although we did semi-trash a banquet room at The Palm Restaurant in Caesar’s.
2. The Ashland Sneak Preview published its first 52-page paper, and I was a little preoccupied.
3. The in-laws are coming in for Memorial Day weekend, and I’ve been concentrating on the garden.
4. My regular Wednesday morning golf group of Michael Donovan, David Taub and Kirk Gooding has been getting very competitive, and I have to devote 30 minutes every day to chip shots in the back yard.
Speaking of keg stands, I did my first one at my daughter Catherine’s boyfriend’s 25th birthday party last week. It was almost anticlimactic as most of the beer just dribbled down my face. I felt a lot more mature afterwards, though … just kidding.
Anyway, after my last meandering on this blog concerning the meals tax, Jeff Golden and I spent an entire day e-mailing each other in valiant attempts to change each other’s minds. I finally agreed that maybe I was being too harsh, and he did the same. One interesting thing he did say was that he wasn’t totally sold on the sales tax on meals. He estimated he was only in favor maybe 60-40, meaning he narrowly thinks the good outweighs the bad.
One person who has completely changed his mind on the matter is Ron Roth, owner of Geppetto’s. Back in 1993, he was the only restaurant owner who came out in favor of the meals tax. While his support for it was somewhat tepid, he did provide all kinds of convenient quotes for the newspapers.
WELL … Ron has been making the news a lot lately. First, he was cited (along with two other restaurants) for not paying their meals taxes to the City. So last week he submitted a commentary to the Tidings, explaining exactly how he got into this predicament.
Turns out his partner Kathleen had slipped on a mat at the restaurant a few years ago and broke her kneecap. Without insurance, the couple faced medical bills in the thousands of dollars, and it put them in a hole. Ron apologized to the community and assured everyone that he intended to pay the bill with interest.
He then waxed philosophical about how the community is lacking the togetherness we once felt back in the good old days before everything turned so divisive. He had some suggestions for turning things around, and one of them was to get rid of the meals tax.
Yes, Ron, welcome to the fold! He recognizes that this tax makes us a pariah in southern Oregon, and that it is hurting business—not just restaurants but related retail stores. There are countless numbers of people in the region who refuse to come here because of the sales tax. It’s just a fact of life … actually, two facts of life: 1. People shop and eat in places where there are no taxes, and 2. People boycott places that try to force outsiders to pay for things the residents should be paying for themselves.
Wastewater treatment plant? People all over southern Oregon pay for their own plants. What makes Ashland so special that it thinks it can charge visitors to help foot the bill? Do we pay for the wastewater treatment plant in Medford or Grants Pass? The whole concept is pure narcissism, and I’ll be real blunt with all my friends here in Ashland: IT PISSES A LOT OF PEOPLE OFF!
Okay, so let’s assume the people of Ashland come to their senses and decide to get rid of the meals tax. What horrible things will happen?
The City right now threatens to raise our water/sewer rates if the meals tax isn’t passed to make up for the difference, yet according to my estimates the citizens of Ashland are already paying $1.1 million in meals taxes every year.
The meals tax brings in $1.8 million a year, which means we’re only making $700,000 from out-of-town visitors. While I recognize that it’s nice to milk people from California to help pay for our “stuff,” you have to realize that a lot of people in southern Oregon think it’s awfully presumptuous. Let’s weigh the good versus the bad.
So how to make up for the $700,000? Since we want to “get” tourists from California, all we have to do is institute a $1.50 tax on theater tickets. Every venue in the country does this. Hell, I went to Las Vegas, and the tax on theater tickets was $10 a ticket. TEN DOLLARS!
Every year the Festival sells 400,000 tickets. At $1.50, that would bring in $600,000. That almost makes the nut.
I encourage everyone to attend the upcoming meetings that the City has scheduled for discussions on the meals tax, and to send them this message: Get rid of this sales tax, save us $1.1 million a year, raise our sewer rates by $1.1 million a year, and find another way to raise the $700,000.
Then sit back and watch restaurants and businesses thrive in this town like they haven’t done since July 1, 1993, a real Day of Infamy in the history of this town. And guess what? As businesses thrive, the City will make more money in business taxes. This is about as close to a no-brainer as anyone can get.
