Meeting addresses sales-tax proposal

MUSCLE SHOALS -- A proposed tax increase to fund economic development would have accountability measures that include a new makeup of the Shoals Economic Development Authority Board.

Under the plan, the board would be reduced from 24 to 12 members.

Eight of the members would be in elected positions and would form the board's finance committee.

The committee would make recommendations on spending from the funds that would develop from the sales tax increase.

The plan also specifies uses for the fund, which would be limited to industrial recruitment. No more than 10 percent of the previous year's sales tax collected from the fund could go toward SEDA operations.

That proposal was hammered out during a three-hour meeting between SEDA officials, local legislators, mayors of the Shoals' four largest cities and Lauderdale and Colbert commission chairmen.

"If we have this fund and do it right, we can really change the face of this community for our children and grandchildren, and I think that's really exciting," said SEDA Board Chairman Macke Mauldin.

The meeting comes on the heels of a request from SEDA for a sales tax increase of up to one-half percent.

The timing of the request is tied to a major industry that is seriously looking at coming to the Barton Riverfront Industrial Park in Colbert County. The company would employ at least 1,500 workers and provide an annual economic impact of at least $50 million, officials say.

SEDA officials have worked on the project with Gov. Bob Riley and state industrial recruiters for about eight months and a decision is expected within a month.

Lauderdale and Colbert commissions are being asked to get the local legislative delegation to pass a local bill giving the commissions authority to raise the sales tax by up to a half-cent.

If the bill passes, commissioners would decide how much to raise the tax to meet the area's obligation for the project, plus help develop other industrial sites and be a player in future projects.

County commissioners also would ask legislators to pass a bill to reorganize the SEDA board.

Under the proposal, the four nonelected members of the 12-member board would be appointed by the sitting board, and include two each from Lauderdale and Colbert counties. They'd serve three-year terms. The elected officials on the board must be in office during their terms.

SEDA's request pertains only to general sales taxes. Those would amount to $3.54 per year, if there were a one-fourth cent increase, SEDA Executive Director Forrest Wright said.

General sales taxes account for the vast majority of all sales taxes.

In fact, general sales taxes, along with agriculture, amusement, automobile, manufacturing mach-inery and vending, would amount to $4.2 million, Wright said.

He said the figures are based on 2005 sales taxes in the area.

Wright said a one-fourth percent sales tax increase would provide only enough money to help honor a local incentive commitment for the major industry that is being discussed.

A half-cent increase would pay for that and provide a fund for future ventures, he said.

All money from the increase would go into that fund.

Under the proposal, money can only go toward: